Today is our last full day of the trip. Our first stop is the Prague castle. The castle was built in in 1344 by Emperor Charles IV for whom much of Prague is named. The palace was opened to the public after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. It was the offices of the Communist party before that. The current appearance of the castle dates back 250 years. The last king to live here was Rudolph II in 1612.
As we approached the castle we arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard. This is repeated hourly at each of the gates.
The cathedral next to the castle was first built in the 10th century. The 2nd church was built in the 12th century and the 3rd by Charles IV in 1344. Newer additions were built in the 19th and 20th centuries. The oldest parts of the church are black with age but they can’t clean them without damaging the soft sandstone from which it is made. The cathedral has 20 chapels, the nicest one to Saint Wenceslas, the duke to Bohemia during the 10th century. He is referred to in a Christmas carol as “Good King Wenceslas”, however this song is not familiar to the Czechs.
Sunday services are going on so we do not go into the church. The Czech Republic is not religious and about 68% are atheists.
It was Sunday and the bells began to ring as our tour guide was talking about it. She waited to continue but after 15 minutes of bell ringing, we proceeded around the cathedral to continue our tour.
We exit through the front gate of the castle and arrive at a street where there are palaces that were built by the rich and powerful in the 17thand 18th centuries. We also have a view over the Little Quarter of Prague, the US and German embassies and the river.
We return to the bus and drive past a stadium built 80 years ago by the communists. It was built to hold 250,000 people for sporting events. In the hills above Prague there are many nice homes built in the 18th and 19th centuries.
We continue our walking tour through a park along the river. As we approach the Charles Bridge, we see many restored homes. There is a wall that Prague residents paint with pictures, words, etc. It was first painted as a memorial to John Lennon’s death and it continues to be painted over again and again today.
As we walk across the Charles Bridge, our tour guide talks about several of the 30 statues on the bridge. The statues weren’t added until the 17th century. One of the most viewed ones is of St. John of Nepomuk who was thrown from the bridge in 1393 after taking the side of the church in a dispute with the king. In 1387 the first stone bridge was built here replacing a wooden one.. At one end of the bridge is a small building that was the toll house for collecting taxes to cross the bridge.
We continued our stroll into Old Town, as our guide described the history of various buildings. At the corner of one is a statue to Rabbi Lowe, the rabbi from the Golem story, who is buried in the Jewish cemetery.
We ended up in the old town square by the astronomical clock to watch the figurines move at noon.
We had been told that the Jewish Quarter was closed for the holiday of Tu B'Shvat (the commemoration of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem) so we had arranged for a private tour guide to take us to the Terezin concentration camp. Our Viking tour leader, Monigue, found out that the Quarter was indeed open so we called our guide and negotiated for him to give us a tour of the Quarter. His name is Jay and he was very knowledgable about the Quarter and the Jewish customs.
We had lunch at the Golem café before meeting our guide. There is a legend that Rabbi Lowe created a robot like creature from clay to protect the residents of the ghetto. One day the Golem got out of control, caused damage and hurt people so the rabbi made him lifeless again. The Golem supposedly is still asleep in the attic of the Old New synagogue.
We met our tour guide, Jay, and he took us for a walk through the streets of Old Town to show where the Ghetto walls used to be. We went into 4 synagogues that are all museums today, learning about the history of the Jewish quarter, and who their influential leaders were throughout the years.
Jews first came to Prague in the 10th century since it was on an important trade route. By 1215 they were forced to live in ghettos by the pope. The gates were locked at night and during Christian holidays. At various times through history the Jews were protected by the king, or the victims of persecution. The 16th century was the best time for the Jews in Prague. In 1680 Old Town burned including the ghetto. The only buildings that remain from the ghetto are 3 synagogues and the cemetery. The Jews only had one site as a cemetery and over the years they had to add more levels, but the tombstones were all raised to the current level, resulting in thousands of tombstones only inches from each other. The oldest synagogue, called the Old New Synagogue, dates back to 1270. The Jews were taxed not only by the city but also by the king because he offered them protection.
In 1850 the Jews were freed from the ghetto and allowed to live elsewhere. As the area became vacant, it became a slum and was eventually torn down and rebuilt. In 1868 a reform synagogue was built in the Spanish-Moorish style. It is still a beautiful building today.
As we ended our tour with Jay, our feet were sore from walking all day so we went back to Old Town Square for a beer. It started to rain but our table was covered by an umbrella, so we stayed reasonably dry. When it stopped, we found a taxi and went back to the hotel.
We had our final dinner in Prague at a nice local restaurant in the Imperial Hotel. The walls were covered in colorful ceramic tiles and art. It was a pleasant meal and a nice way to end the trip.
Again, thank you to my sister as I used some of her blog for this one.
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