Prague in Pictures (mostly)

I'm going to do this blog a little bit differently. For the most part I'm just going to provide an explanation to these pictures instead of giving you a rundown of what I did, because, frankly, I think it will be really boring to read. A lot of these pictures aren't great, so I apologize. I might elaborate on things a bit here and there, especially for interesting places I visited, but was unable to photograph for whatever reason.

This is Charles Bridge. It is the most famous bridge in Prague. This picture is not the best, but it has a lot of statues along it. The most notable of these is the statue of St. John of Nepomuk, who was said to have been thrown off the bridge into the river because he refused to tell King Wenceslas what his Queen had confessed. The statue has to reliefs on either side. Touching the relief of St. John (I think it is an image of his corpse) is said to bring good luck, but be sure not to touch the relief of the dog. Some university students polished it up with steel wool as a prank, and touching it is said to bring bad luck.

Here is the bridge from a closer angle. Another notable fact about this bridge is that it is the only one in the world (at least, as far as I know) that was built using eggs. The story goes that eggs were mixed with the mortar to give the bridge strength (protein builds muscle!) A few years ago some scientists tested the mortar of the bridge and it showed that there was traces of organic matter, so this is one Prague legend that is probably true.

This is the monument to Jan Hus, leader of the Hussites, who were one of the earliest protestant groups (about a hundred years before Martin Luther). Jan Hus was burned alive for his heretical beliefs, and his execution started a period of religious unrest in Prague.


This is the Old Town Hall. It was badly damaged in WWII. This is what remains of it today. After the execution of Jan Hus, a group of his followers ran up the steps of this building, grabbed some Catholics, and threw them out the window onto spikes (just in case the fall didn't kill them).

This is one of the most famous attractions in Prague. It is the Astronimical Clock on the side of the Old Town Hall. It is not actually used to tell time. Instead it is meant to mark the phases of the moon, the seasons, and Saints days. From something like 6:00-21:00 on the hour the little doors at the top open and the twelve apostles roll past, while the four little figures just below move. They represent vanity, greed, death, and corruption. Death rings a bell and the other figures shake. Then the golden cock lets out a pathetic sound, similar to a balloon deflating. Legend has it that the creator of the clock, Master Hanus, was blinded by the city council after the clock was completed so he could not go and build an even better clock elsewhere. He was not too pleased about this, so he cursed the clock and it didn't work for 100 years.

This is me wearing my new sunglasses. I'm still not sure I like them, but at least they have the potential to leave interesting tan lines on my forehead.

I am actually not too sure what the story with this building is, but isn't it cool? I'm sure I saw a picture of it somewhere weeks before I went to Prague, so I'll try to relocate that picture, and hopefully with it will be some kind of explanation.

This is a monument to Kafke outside of his birthplace in Prage. Kafke is everywhere around the city, which is not surprising as he is probably the most famous person ever to come from Prague.

This entranceway is all that remains of the original building that Kafke was born in.

This is another monument to Kafke in the Jewish Quarter. That's him atop a headless, handless, and footless man. This sculpture is modelled after a nightmare Kafke had in which he was being chased by the aforementioned man, and instead of running away he decide to climb up the man and have a look around. This sculpture is located just outside of the Spanish synogogue, which is part of the Jewish museum.

Prague has the oldest Jewish community in all of Europe, and also one of the largest collections of artifacts relating to Jewish culture. This is, somewhat perversely, thanks to the Nazis, who hoped to open a museum to an extinct race. I went through most of the Jewish museum (I only skipped the Old New Synogogue, which was a mistake, as it is the oldest synogogue in Europe). The most moving exhibits were in Pinkas Synogogue, which has all the names of the Jews from Prague who had been exterminated in the Holocaust painted on the walls in tiny letters. There is also an exhibit of artwork created by children who were held in the Terezin concentration camp. This particular camp was used as a propaganda tool to dispel rumours of the extermination camps set up around Europe. On two separate occassions they allowed the Red Cross in to investigate and on both occassions the Red Cross was fooled. There were many children at this camp, but as the allies moved in on Prague, the Jews were sent off to Auschwitz where most of them perished in the ovens. When I visited Sachsenhausen I was surprised at how angry I felt. The exhibit at the Pinkas Synagogue had the opposite effect. I was really moved, and greatly saddened by what I saw.

The other part of the museum that really stood out for me was the Old Jewish Cemetary. I wasn't able to take pictures inside, but you can get an idea of what it looks like if you type in "Old Jewish Cemetery Prague" in Google images. You should definitely check it out. It was actually the partial inspiration for Peter Eisenman's Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Berlin (which you should also google, because my pictures don't do it justice). Because the Jews were forbidden from burying there dead outside of this small cemetary, the bodies are stacked up to 15 people deep. There are approximately 15,000 gravestones in the cemetery, including that of Rabbi Loew. Rabbi Loew built a golem to protect the Jewish people of Prague. One day he forgot to take the sacred scroll from the mouth of the golem, and said golem went on a rampage, damaging anything in his path. Rabbi Loew was forced to put the golem out of commission, and he stored him in the rafters of the Old New Synogogue. The story goes that during the Nazi occupation of Prague one Nazi officer was skeptical of the golem story. He went up to the rafters of the synogogue to investigate and he was never heard from again.

This was a sign in the Jewish Quarter that struck me as funny.

This is a memorial to Jan Palach, a young philosophy student who, in 1969, set himself on fire to protest the Soviet invasion of the country. There is a cross in Wenceslas Square which marks the spot where he died.

This old guy was just hanging around.

This is a view of Prague Castle in the daytime. It is the largest castle complex in the world. I did a tour of the outside, but I did not venture in.

The same as above, but at sunset. I like this shot better.

This is a fake grotto from one of the palaces inside the castle complex. If you look at it long enough you are meant to see faces of monsters and creatures in the stalatites (that one's for you Jill).

This is a view through the trees of St. Vitus Cathedral. It took over 600 years to complete! It was only completed in 1929.

It is the only cathedral in the world that has men wearing 20th century suits on it.

These are the architects who completed the cathedral in 1929 and decided to leave a piece of themselves behind.

Okay, well that's it for Prague, unless I can think of something else at a later date. I have a video I would like to upload, but we'll have to see if Blogger allows it to happen.