borders and byways: Prague Day 1 Oct 25

October 25, 2017 Prague 1 Day 24 of trip

The overnight Krakow to Prague train departed almost exactly on time. We were escorted to our cabin by a steward. The cabin was small, but functional. Bunk beds, a sink and a luggage compartment. The toilet was down the corridor.

While riding in Poland the tracks were not very smooth, the train generated a lot of noise and seemed to move at a reduced speed. However, at some point, presumably when we crossed into the Czech Republic the train picked up speed and there was less noise and bumps from the tracks. The upper bunk was narrow, but the swaying of the train gradually put me to sleep and I was rested when the train began to slow down outside of Prague. The porter brought us a cold, but substantive breakfast and hot drinks about 6:30 am.

We arrived on schedule in Prague’s main train station on the east side of town at about 7:00 am. It took a while to find an ATM to get some Czech currency but after that since we were unsure where to go and dragging luggage we got into a cab and rode to The Three Crowns Hotel in the Prague 3 neighborhood at Cimburkova 28. This was a little bit outside of the Old Town area, but located between a tram and bus line that would take us downtown in less than 10 minutes.

Fortunately, our room was ready, and we went up to the fourth/top floor to find that we had a spacious room with a large bathroom. After showers and a brief nap, we went down for breakfast. The hotel had a wonderful, expansive breakfast buffet.

We then began a search for a DHL office to mail some documents needed in the USA for the closing of the sale of my spouse’s late father’s business. That proved ultimately to be unsuccessful notwithstanding the assistance of the hotel concierge. We walked about a mile up a hill to what we thought was a DHL office, but it did not exist. Finally, we found a Czech post office. We paid a pretty penny for delivery (it never arrived in the US.)

We then took the Metro a couple of stops downtown to Staromestska. That dropped us off in a modern business center a few blocks away from the Old Town area. The Metro is modern and efficient. I was told that all Prague residents pay a monthly transit fee and then ride for free. Our ride was cheap by western standards.

We walked into the Stare Mesto, Old Town, area which is centered around Old Town Square. The Square was bustling with activity and surrounded by interesting structures. The old town and the square date back to the 10^th century when a marketplace and settlement grew up on the east bank of the Vltava River that was part of the Great Moravian Empire. The 13th and 14^th centuries were an extended period of prosperity and power for Prague when it became the center of the Holy Roman Empire (neither holy nor Italian, but powerful) culminating in the rule of Charles IV, who among other things built the bridge that bears his name. Alas the 15^th century witnessed the beginning of disastrous religious strife and intolerance that began in and ultimately devastated Bohemia, but eventually engulfed most of Europe in the Thirty Years War. Jan Hus was the Czech lands foremost, and one of Europe’s earliest (he preceded Martin Luther by over 100 years) Protestant, Christian reformers. Like Luther he criticized the practice of selling indulgences and that landed him in the Pope’s black book. In 1410 he was excommunicated and that lead to efforts by him and his followers to rid themselves Roman and foreign authority. In 1415 Hus was invited to a conference to recant his views with the understanding that he would be granted safe passage. He attended, refused to recant and was burned at the stake. He was about a century too early.

His followers, the Hussites, kept fighting for two centuries, ultimately storming Prague’s Town Hall and literally tossing several Catholic councilors out upper story windows, “defenestration”, and although they met with initial success, they were ultimately defeated which opened the door for the Austrian, Catholic Habsburgs to come in. Austrian power was solidified in 1620 when they prevailed over the Bohemian and Moravian nobles in the battle of Bila Hora (“White Mountain”) where the rebels were brutally crushed. That ushered in 300 years of Austrian rule.

The square has a large monument in the middle honoring Jan Hus and his followers for their efforts to free the country from Austrian rule. The faces of his followers seem bitter. However behind the Hus statute are a mother and child, symbolizing the rebirth of the Czech nation. Just off the larger square is an area named after Jan Palach a university student who in 1969 set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square to protest the Soviet invasion. On the memorial plague his face has a ghostly death mask.

Looming over the square is the twin Gothic spires of the Tyn Church. It is topped by a golden image of the Virgin Mary made from a melted down Hussite chalice. Although very impressive from the outside, the interior was heavy and dark. There was a ticket office in the Church for concerts and we purchased tickets for a concert later that evening. We watched a Swedish street performer for a while and then walked to the far side of the square to observe the Astronomical Clock. This is housed in the Old Town Hall. The four figures beside the clock represent: Death, a skeleton, Vanity, a mirror; Greed, a Jewish money lender; and the Pagan Invasion, a Turk. The four figures below represent the Chronicler, Angel, Astronomer and Philosopher. On the hour Death rings a bell and inverts his hour glass and then the 12 Apostles parade past the windows above the clock. There was a huge crowd gathered for this event which took about a minute. The clock was built in 1410, but improved in 1490 by Master Hanus, who was allegedly blinded after his work was completed so that he could not replicate it elsewhere. (We heard a similar story about an artist in India associated with the Taj Mahal.) The center of the clock face has a map of the then known world with Prague at the center. On the side of the clock tower are 27 crosses marking the spot where 27 Protestant nobles were beheaded following the battle of Bila Hora. We did not climb the tower, too many people and a steep price, but instead crossed the square and walked into the Tyn Courtyard, formerly called Ungeltu. This was a very picturesque courtyard. It was established in the 11^th century originally as a medieval fortified hotel with a trading center and a customs office for foreign merchants. Now it houses shops restaurants and hotels. Next to the U Ungeltu shop is the House of the Black Bear hotel whose façade is adorned with a statute of St. John of Nepomuk (Statutes of him are ubiquitous throughout the parts of the Czech Republic we visited, seemingly almost as ubiquitous as Ataturk in Turkey.) He was tortured and then drowned in the river in the 14^th century by the king after refusing to divulge the confessional secrets of the queen, and a bear in chains.

Continuing our walking tour, we went to the Church of St James, a giant Gothic church that was originally built in the 14^th century and renovated in the 18^th century. Inside it had an over the top tomb of Count Jan Vratislav, a large pipe organ and a shriveled human arm that is allegedly the remains of the arm of a thief which was so tightly grabbed by the Virgin that his arm had to be cut off to escape.

We made our way to the Museum of Czech Cubism. The building was built in 1912, but it still looks modern. From there we went to an open triangle area that was a former fruit market. Now it has lots of restaurants and at the end it has the Estates Theatre which is Prague’s oldest theatre. It hosted the premiere of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in 1787. Alas the interior was accessible only if one attended a performance.

We walked back through the fruit market along Celetna Street to Powder Tower. This is almost 200 feet tall and was begun to be built in 1475 as one of the Old Town’s 13 gates. The road to Vienna began here. In the 18^th century it was used as a gun powder magazine, hence its current name. It has sculptors along its sides and is topped by a trapezoidal roof.

When we passed through the Gate we left the Old Town and entered a big busy intersection. On our left was Municipal House, a big cream-colored building topped by a green dome. This striking 1911 building is the best example of Czech Art Nouveau architecture. It has an elaborate wrought iron balcony, bronze Atlases holding lanterns and lots of stain glass windows. In 1918 Czech independence was announced form this balcony. The bottom floor houses an Art Nouveau café with impressive chandeliers.

We then walked into Republic Square. It is a transit hub and is flanked by several large malls and department stores. We had a small bite to eat from street food vendors and then walked back past the Municipal House on a street called Na Prikope where the old city wall once stood. The street name means “On the Moat” and the street lies on the former moat that protected the wall and the Old Town. Old Prague was protected on two sides by the river, crossed only by a fortified bridge, and on two sides by moats and walls. The non-wall side is lined with modern buildings, but we were unable to find the Museum of Communism notwithstanding the fact that we were in the courtyard that the guide book directed us to. In fact, we learned that it had recently relocated to a street off Republic Square.

Putting that off for the next day, we walked into Wenceslas Square. This is the heart of New Town. Originally founded as a horse market, it now has all the trappings of a modern commercial oasis, department stores and malls, high end chain stores and fast food restaurants. However, the Square has been witness to a lot of modern history. In early 1968 Alexander Dubcek took over the helm of the Communist Party that was headquartered on the Square. He began a reform program, called the Prague Spring that attempted to tiptoe away form the Russians and liberalized Czech society. Alas, that did not last long. As I distinctly recall reading in the NY Times on the subway on my way back from my job as a lady shoe salesman (one of the worst jobs I ever had) in late August 200,000 troops from the Warsaw Pact rolled into Prague and crushed the Prague Spring. The Russian tanks chewed up the pavement in Wenceslas Square and killed 72 Czechs and Slovaks. You can still see bullet marks on the walls of some of the buildings I distinctly remember wondering why the US and western governments allowed this and feeling bitterness toward the Russians and great sadness for the Czech citizens. Yet 21 years later the children of those citizens brought about the Velvet Revolution that culminated in Vaclav Havel appearing on a balcony in the Square announcing the end of communism in then Czechoslovakia.

Interestingly, while we were there the news outlets were reporting on the consolidation of power of a nationalist euro sceptic ruler who was supported by the remnants of the Communist Party that typically receives about 10% of the vote.

We then left Wenceslas Square and walked downhill on Na Mustku (“along the bridge” that crossed the moat) which became Melantrichova, street filled with upscale shops and then the museum of sex machines. No time for that as it was beginning to get dark and we were on our way to our concert. We passed through the Old Town Square again and exited on to traffic free Karlova Street which was supposed to lead us to the Charles Bridge. However, that street twisted and turned, and the promised street signs did not keep us on track. Karlova is a touristy, feeding frenzy, commercial gauntlet that seemed to have many shops selling Russian artifacts. The only respite from the commercialism on this street was Charles University which dates to the 14^th century and was the first University in Central Europe. Johannes Kepler worked here.

Karlova spills out onto Charles IV Square. He was the Holy Roman Emperor in the 14thcentury who ruled over a vast empire that stretched from the Low Countries in the west to the Balkans in the east. That was the highwater mark of Czech power. He now appears on the 100-koruna bill.

At the entrance to the Charles Bridge is a huge statute of Charles and a bridge tower. In 1342 a flooded Vltava washed out the existing bridge. Charles IV, a numerologist, decided to build an entirely new, stone structure. The foundation for the new bridge was laid on July 9, 1357 at 5:31 am. Written out in digits this comes out in a numerical palindrome (the same numbers back and forth), 135797531. This remained the only crossing of the river in Prague for almost 400 years.

It was too dark by now for good pictures, but crossing the bridge a crowded, festive structure, we passed many statutes that lined both sides. The most impressive was the one of St. John of Nepomuk, (see above) whose plaque marks the spot and shows how he was tossed off the bridge. When he hit the water five stars, a sign of purity, allegedly appeared. The statutes of Cyril and Methodius, two brothers who arrived from Greece in the 9^th century to introduce Christianity to the Slavs were also impressive. Looking downstream we could make out a huge terrace topped by a giant metronome. This was the site of a 14,000-ton statute of Stalin built in 1955 which preceded two lines of Communist heroes, one Czech and one Russian (Socialist unity). The following day In the Museum of Communism, we saw pictures of it and its destruction in 1962.

We crossed the Bridge and entered the Little Quarter. We passed the Lennon Wall. This was a nothing wall, but after Lennon’s death in 1980 people would spontaneously cover the wall with memorial graffiti at night and the next day the police would paint it over. This was repeated nightly until independence came in 1989. We continued up the hill to the Little Quarter Square which is dominated by the Church of St. Nicholas. Across the square we went into the associated Jesuit college for the concert. It was held in a beautiful hall where we listened to classical music for 90 minutes.

We walked back down the hill and caught the tram back to our hotel. We ate dinner at a small Italian restaurant near the hotel to which we di not return until about 11:00. A long day.