Awe-Inspiring Prague: Part Two
< Start at the beginning of this series: Grand European River Cruise
Panoramic Prague (cont’d)
In this post, we continue our long day in Prague. After visiting the John Lennon Wall, we loaded into a motor coach and were dropped off at the entrance to the Prague Castle Complex. Since it was a dreary day and my photo from the best vantage point was not that great, the photo above was taken by Andrew Shiva under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. In that photo, you can see at least the front side of the Complex above the greenery in the top row of buildings.
Dating back to the 9th century, the Prague Castle Complex houses many historical buildings and offices, including the office of the President of the Czech Republic. The castle was a seat of power for kings of Bohemia, Holy Roman emperors, and presidents of Czechoslovakia. Also within its walls are two cathedrals, a monastery, gardens, defense towers and several palaces and museums – all of which represent nearly every architectural style of the last thousand years. Since this tour had already covered a lot of ground, we were only allowed to enter St. Vitus Cathedral. At first I was disappointed that we could only gawk at the facades of the rest of the buildings and not see their glorious interiors, but seeing what we WERE allowed to see was more than enough to do in one day.
The map below is part of a great pdf with lots more info, if you’re interested. If you want to see where my photos were taken in the complex, check out the black squares with white numbers on the map. Since our motor coach came up behind the cathedral and we were with several large groups who were going in at the same time, we didn’t enter through the main entrance into the first courtyard. Instead we went in the north entrance at the top-left on the map, directly into Courtyard 2. We progressed thru 3 and 5, and then on to the Lobkowicz Palace (9). Hopefully you can get an idea of just how massive this place is!
As we approach in the motor coach, the photo below is our first glimpse of the cathedral a little closer. Hopefully you will notice the fabulous diamond pattern on the roof that is made from slate shingles, and the blue dome on the right that tops the bell tower, which we’ll see up close a little later.
“Prague Castle is an ancient symbol of the Czech state and the most significant national historical monument. According to the Guinness Book of Records, Prague Castle is the largest coherent castle complex in the world and also it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List… Besides being the seat of the head of state, Prague Castle is also the place where the Crown Jewels of Czech kings are kept together with precious Christian relics, art treasures and historical documents and where Czech kings and patron saints are buried.” – Read more
The north entrance was crazy busy as the crowds passed through the gateway to enter the castle grounds. Although we missed the changing of the guard which takes place every hour, we enjoyed watching the Prague Castle Guards standing straight as arrows, totally expressionless. Pictured below, they are part of the Armed Forces, serving the Military Office of the President of the Czech Republic.
Once we passed thru the gate, we were into the second courtyard with three more structures. On the left, below is the Chapel of the Holy Cross, built in 1763. Also called the Treasury, it was converted into an exhibition space for the most valuable items collected for the treasury of the Cathedral. Click on the link for an awesome photo of the chapel and you’ll see that it is not round, standing on its own in the courtyard as my photo implies, but elongated, jutting out from the building behind it.
To the right of the chapel is a well with an iron gate and Kohl’s fountain. From 1686, Kohl’s is one of the oldest fountains in Prague and used to be an integral part of the castle’s water system.
We entered into the third courtyard and were immediately in awe of an enormous Gothic structure – St. Vitus Cathedral. Seeing it so close-up, made for some interesting angles for photos.
As part of our tour, we were able to enter the cathedral through an enormous bronze door decorated with scenes from its history and legends of St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert.
Guides were not allowed inside with us, so we ventured in on our own and stood – as motionless as the guards outside the gates – looking upward at the beauty all around us. At the time we visited, we were only allowed to go thru a portion of the interior, but access seems to change, so read up before you visit. The stained glass was amazing and if you’re a huge fan of stained glass, you should read another blog that I came across in my investigation of it all. Laura has obviously spent a lot more time inside the cathedral than our short tour and she has some lovely photos. Enjoy! But be sure to come back!!
When we exited the cathedral, we had a great view of the Renaissance bell tower with its fabulous Baroque dome. The bell tower holds Zikmund, the largest bell in the Czech Republic.
As we make our way around the corner, we see another side of the tower. From here you can climb 297 steps to the top of the tower for excellent views (and an additional fee). Notice the beautiful gilding above the entryway. If you’d like to hear the bells ringing, click here for a nice video and another beautiful photo of the entire cathedral.
Just to the right of the tower is the former main entrance to the cathedral called the Golden Gate. The fabulous mosaic above the entrance depicts the Last Judgement and was created in a Bohemian glass factory by Italian artists.
Now we are in courtyard 5, also known as St. George’s Square. The photos on the right are of St. George’s Basilica – the second church at Prague Castle. Founded in the early 900’s, only a portion of the building was salvaged after a devastating fire. The church was enlarged and remodeled later that century as a convent for Benedictine nuns.
Just to the right of St. George’s, is a wonderful white building with a rounded portico. Formerly the Institute of Gentlewomen, it is currently used by the Presidential Office and Prague Castle Administration. The Institute was a school for girls of aristocratic families.
Privileged Access: Lobkowicz Palace
As we continued down the walkway, most of the folks on our tour proceeded to the motor coach for their return trip to the boat, but we started another tour right from here of the Lobkowicz Palace (number 9 on the map). For a wonderful video and synopsis of the tour, click on the link. This is just one of hundreds of excursions offered by Viking River Cruises.
As the headline reads, we were granted privileged access to one of the region’s most avid patrons of the arts. We started our tour with wonderful views overlooking the city (see the Charles Bridge?) and an elegant lunch in the Lobkowicz family’s original living quarters, with wine (and more wine). After dessert, we were treated to a private concert in the baroque concert hall.
An audio tour provides a glimpse into the family’s 400-year history, which includes tales of political and military leadership, the loss of the palace twice to both the Nazis and the Communists, and its recent restitution to the family. The palace interior was enhanced with the art of great masters and musical masterpieces. We were able to view many priceless artifacts, including red-inked notes on Handel’s “Messiah” and Beethoven’s Fourth and Fifth Symphony manuscripts, along with weaponry, tableware and even love letters from the family’s archives.
What a wonderful way to end our walking tour in Prague!
Prague by Night
I’m not gonna lie, there was a point during this long day when I was wishing we hadn’t booked three tours, but after a sprucing up a bit and enjoying a relaxing dinner at Restaurace Tiskárna we surprisingly caught our proverbial second winds. More delicious local cuisine in a lovely modern setting (and another beer), was just the break we needed to carry on.
After a pretty gloomy day, it was a pretty wonderful evening and we boarded our motor coach for parts unknown. First stop was the Zizkov TV Tower. Standing at 709 ft., the tower is the highest building in Prague. We squeezed WAY too many people (by US standards) into an elevator and shot up to the observatory at about the 300 ft. mark to get 360 degree views of the city.
Since our tour only included the observatory, we did not even get a glimpse of the elegant Oblaca Restaurant, which was perched about 2/3 of the way up, or One Room, which is a very modern and spacious hotel with only one room (duh) and, of course great views. Maybe next time.
Complaints by the locals about the tower included its effect on the Prague skyline and the destruction of a centuries-old Jewish cemetery which lies beneath its foundation. This was also an example of Communist-era architecture – which is highly resented in Central and Eastern Europe – and it received a rash of nicknames, including “the second ugliest building in the world” (behind the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore). Lately the locals have backed off the criticism since it has become such a tourist attraction – but the nickname remains.
Since for some reason I got no shots of this tower from the outside, I borrowed a gorgeous one from Ralf Roletschek on wikipedia. Also here is a video by Mike’s Road Trip and the two right photos are taken from his video.
In 2001, ten fiberglass “Miminka” (Babies) by Czech artist David Černý became a permanent addition to the tower, crawling up and down its pillars. The sculptures were admired by many and seem to take away from the hideousness of the tower itself. Unfortunately the Babies were removed from the tower in the fall of 2017 for cleaning and structural checks, and had not yet been returned on our visit in June of 2018. Here is a rather humorous article that tells about why the babies were missing while we were there. Remember the other three bronze Babies in Prague’s Kampa Park?
Once again we loaded into the motor coach to take us to our final destination of the day. Passing through many areas we had walked earlier in the day, it was great to see the city again and take in all we had seen on this busy day. We ended at the Strahov Monastery around dusk.
Be sure to click on the link above to see some awesome interior shots of the Library, The Basilica, the Gallery and a great ariel map of the grounds.
Although we weren’t allowed inside any of the buildings, the area was beautiful and the views were amazing from this vantage point. Do you see St. Vitus Cathedral towards the left of the skyline? And Zizkov Tower towards the right side? Wow, what a day!
Next up: Kutna Hora
Happy trails,
Barb
Thanks Joanne. I try!
Beautiful pictures. They make me feel like I am there.
Hi Marlene! The nice thing is when I take photos they are in order, which helps immensely! Between Jim and I, we can piece things together. Sometimes he remembers things I don’t and vice-versa. I always google things I want more information on because I like to act like I know what’s going on! Now you know why there is such a gap in between posts. It’s time-consuming! But I love to have all the details in writing so I can look back years from now and reminisce.
How do you remember all this? Did you do a daily journal?