Places in Prague
Hradcany Castle
Few towns in the world can compete with Prague's Genius Loci. The
setting is truly breathtaking and dreamlike: wood-covered hills
rise followed by the majestic Hradcany castle on the left side.
The castle is shocking in its size, composed of unique buildings
from several epochs and immensely beautiful. It is like a little
town encircling the jewel in the crown - St Vitus's Cathedral. You
will find Romanesque chapels, Gothic towers, Renaissance orchards
and Baroque palaces. The residence of Bohemian kings reminds of
Charles IV, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire who converted Prague
in the 14th century into a European metropolis and Rudolph II, an
insatiable collector of art and patron of the most famous 17th century
alchemists.
Lesser Quartier
From the castle a cobbled road slopes down to the Lesser Quarter
(Mala Strana). It is a poetic area. Its houses show mediaeval
picture signs instead of numbers above their gates and palaces
hide noble gardens where one would expect gray courtyards. There
are the houses of Parliament and numerous embassies. There are
monasteries and churches, each of them different and fascinating:
St Nicholas and its enormous Baroque dome, fortress-like Our Lady
under the Chain, Our Lady of Victory concealing a puny statue
of the Bambino di Praga, up on the castle level the Loretto shrine
with the Santa Casa - a house brought by angels from Nazareth
to Rome or the Strahov monastery housing the Museum of National
Literature. There is a lovely copy of the Eiffel tower, a labyrinth
with twisted mirrors and inviting benches around the monument
of the Father of Czech Romanticism, Karel Hynek Macha in the woods
of the Petrin hill above the Quarter you are likely to fall in
love with.
Kampa Island
The blue stripe of a river, the Vltava, severs Lesser Quarter
from the town itself. Prague's Old Town starts eventually behind
the ancient Charles Bridge. Before you step on this elegant bridge
which is slightly bent and owes its strength to egg yolks added
to the mortar, descend a little to the Kampa Island, the place
damaged by the floods in summer 2002. Probably the most magical
place in Prague: little Venice - a street you can cross on a boat
only, haunted houses, two water mills and the John Lennon Wall
- the symbol of 1980s nonconformism and resistance against communism.
Charles Bridge
Charles Bridge connects two different sides of the city and is
overflowed with international folk listening to buskers' extravaganzas,
buying souvenirs, drawings or paintings and touching the miraculous
spot on the statue of St John Nepomuk who is said to have been
hurled from here into the river. On display are 30 Baroque statues
of saints, making the bridge one of the most notable open-air
art museums.
Prague Old Town
The Old Town has roads bored through buildings and creepy winding
lanes. The basements are in fact first or ground floors of 12-century
houses, an effect caused by frequent floods in the old times.
Several hundred spires and towers (Prague has approximately five
hundred of them) protrude above the array and disarray of the
streets and squares. The most interesting sights include Orloj,
a mediaeval astronomical clock with every-hour morality play performances
at the Old Town Hall, the picturesque Old Town Square, charismatic
Ungelt yard, the Carolinum (the oldest university north of the
Alps mountains), the Jezuite college Clementinum, the Bethlehem
Chapel or the fantastic collection of Czech art in the St Agnes
Monastery.
A special part of the Old Town is Josefov, the old Jewish ghetto.
It is famous for the oldest synagogue in Europe, the "Alt-Neu"
synagogue, a rich museum of Jewish culture, the old cemetary,
and several streets with specific charm. It is now a very lively
area, connected to the Old Town by Parizska Street boulevard.
At the beginning of the 20th century Franz Kafka lived in Josefov.
By a strange coincidence Jaroslav Hasek wrote his Good Soldier
Schwejk at the same time and roughly in the same place like Kafka's
The Trial.
Prague New Town
Like in Warsaw and other old European towns, Pragues New Town
was founded just a few centuries after the Old Town. The centre
of this area is in Wenceslas Square, at the equestrian statue
of St Wenceslas, the patron saint of Czechs. The statue is in
front of the Neo-Renaissance building of the National Museum.
Though in the everyday life it serves merely as the most convenient
meeting point, it has been a stage for the biggest events of Czech
history in the last century. Historical landmarks are represented
not less than in the Old Town. Architectural styles are enriched
by Art Nouveau and several modernist experiments. Like the Old
Town, it is a paradise for strolls, shopping, theatre-cinema-and
museum-going and late evening pub-going. At the Vltava river bank
there is the sumptuous building of the National Theatre and further
south lies Vysehrad, Prague's second castle. The places not to
miss in the New Town are also the Church of Our Lady of the Snows,
the Charles's Square and the famous contemporary building of the
Dancing House.
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