Things to see and do in Prague
If you are visiting Prague, don´t miss a trip to the beautiful church of St Martin-on-the-Walls, a name referring to its proximity to the old fortifications. The church has stood here since the thirteenth century and is essentially a Romanesque construction which was adapted to Gothic during the second half of the fourteenth century.
Although it was restored during the first decade of this century, it remains in atmosphere remarkably medieval and serves today as the evangelical church of the Bohemian Brothers. On the nearby Uhelny trh, the house at the corner with the arches is believed to be where Mozart lived in 1787. A plaque and a crumbling relief over the main facade commemorate this.
From here the Skofepka leads to Betlemske mim, where the twin white gables of the Bethlem chapel seem rather new for a building purporting to be medieval. This is because the original chapel was demolished at the end of the eighteenth century and what we now see is the work of Jaroslav Fnigner, carried out to the original plans but during the 1950S. The reason for this unique and in its own way remarkable piece of reconstruction of what is at first glance a far from distinguished building is that it was here that Jan Hus held some of his earliest services in Czech rather than Latin.
The Husova Prague
The Husova, which runs from here, contains the large Dominican church erected in 1339-71 by Drzice and Arnost von Pardubice but later given a Baroque interior by Frantisek Spacek in the 1730S. The showy stucco decoration of the interior dates from this time and contains sculptures by Matthias Schonherr. The Husova itself is one of the oldest streets in Prague and is rich in gables, although the narrowness of the street makes them difficult to appreciate.
On the right down the Karlova is the Male nam., or small square or ring, a welcome space adorned by a faultless series of buildings whose pediments and gables make as pretty a skyline as can be seen in Central Europe. At the centre of this square is an iron-surrounded Renaissance fountain dating from the sixteenth century.
To the left of this, the Petzold house has a late Renaissance facade with sgraffito decoration, while behind the fountain is the Judge's House, with a classical portal attributed to Johann Kranner, who is believed to have built it in 1798. There are several cafes here where, despite a service which is almost Balkan in its slowness, a pleasant half-hour can be spent taking in these restful surroundings.
The Male nam. leads directly to the most important square in the old tarometske nam. Graced at one end by the tower of the Town Hall and at the other by the twin towers of the Teyn church, this must be one of the most beautiful squares in the world. Without waiting to examine each of the Jewels which make up the whole, the thing to do now is to ascend the tower of the Town Hall. Far less exhausting than that of St Stephen's cathedral in Vienna, it is sufficiently low to provide at close quarters a view of the roofs and gables which are so elusive from the narrow street.
The Hradcany Castle Prague
Across the river rises the barrack of a palace which is the Hradcany castle embracing the Gothic cathedral of St Vitus. On the horizon there are some alarming concrete blocks of flats, but these sinister things should be ignored and the picturesque sights immediately below examined more carefully. As well as its tower, the Town Hall is graced by a magnificent astronomical clock.
The work of Nikolaus von Kadail, dating from about 1410, the clock has been restored several times. The Gothic detailing and statuary of the clock belong partly to the beginning of the fifteenth century and partly to the early sixteenth. The allegories of the twelve months are, however, only an 1864 copy of the original.
Next to this is a fine piece of middle-pointed Gothic around the door to the Town Hall. This dates from 1475 and is believed to have been the work of Matej Rejsek, a mason who also worked on part of St Vitus's cathedral. His name is also associated with the beautiful 'Erker chapel' beneath the tower, an exquisite oriel window, dating from 1389 but adorned with coats of arms from a century later. The chapel was de¬stroyed during the war but has been partly restored. At the corner stands a copy of a Gothic Madonna.
The main wing of the building next to this is nineteenth-century Gothic revival. To the right of the Town Hall, the square opens up dramatically towards the Baroque facade of St Nicholas's church, an important work of Kilian Dientzenhofer dating from the 1730S with sculpture by Anton Braun. Originally built by the Benedictines, the church now belongs to the Czechoslovak state and is rarely open to the public. Inside, the frescoes are the work of the Bavarian painter Cosmas D. Asam and recall the legend of St Benedict and St Nicholas.
Near the centre of the square stands a rather incongruous, straggling group of statues built in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of John Hus. It is a strange mixture of realism and art nouveau, but whatever its merits as an individual work of art, it cannot be seen as a happy addition to the square.
The Gothic School Prague
To the east of this, in front of the twin towers of the Teyn church, rise the picturesque gables of the early Gothic Teyn school. The gables are curiously reminiscent of some Venetian scuola and are later than the rest of the building. The highly ornate Rococo palace to its right is the former Goltz-Kinsky palace, built between 1755 and 1765 to K. I. Dientzenhofer's designs. Today it contains the absorbing graphic collection of the Czech National Gallery.
The Teyn Church Prague
The Teyn church, so often covered in scaffolding, has been under restoration for years, but if progress continues at the present pace it may soon be possible to see more than just the twin pointed towers crowned by four graceful turrets and the high-pitched roof which was added in 1460 shortly after George Podiebrad was crowned King of Bohemia here.
It was he who caused the facade to be adorned by a large chalice, the symbol of the Hussites whose church this was. But after the battle of the White Mountain (1620) the chalice was replaced by an image of the Virgin. With a little luck, it should at least be possible to see the round-arched north doorway, dating from 1390. This imposing baldachin arch, with its delicate tracery, is attributed to Peter Parler, the great medieval craftsman. The lower right console contains two beautiful sculptures of the evangelists Mark and John.
Inside, the church seems at first to be rather cluttered. The Gothic vaulting and arcades are filled with high altars, of which that under a Gothic baldachin in the north aisle is the most interesting. The work of Matej Rejsek, it dates from the last decade of the fifteenth century. Attached to the last south-eastern pier is the red-marble tombstone of the celebrated Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (d. 1601), who was invited to Prague in 1599.
In front of this sombre figure, clutching in one hand a globe and in the other quite wisely, given the turbulence of the times a sword, there is a magnificent Baroque candelabra. These and a pewter Gothic font are the chief treasures of the church, although there is some Gothic wooden carving on several of the side altars which should not be overlooked.
From the Teyn church, return to the Town Hall, perhaps lingering at The door numbered 601. This leads to a courtyard at the end of which a further door brings us into the dark and sombre interior. over some Slovak wine at a nearby bar before taking the Karlova, where almost immediately to our right a quartet of Titans struggling to support a heavy Baroque portal remind us of the presence in this city of another great Baroque architect whose dramatic sculpture we are already familiar with: Fischer von Erlach.
In the few minutes spent wandering around the old town, it has been possible to admire the achievements of the two great Dientzenhofer architects and recognize a lighter less exuberant Baroque. Here Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach's palace takes us back to the exotic world of Prince Eugen's Winter Palace in Vienna with something of a jolt.
The lavish mass of the Clam-Gallas Palace at the end of the narrow Husova has a profusion of relief carving which is unmistakably Viennese. For years, its blackened fatyade has been covered in scaffolding and its fine Carlo Carlone frescoes around the splendid staircase are almost impossible to see, but even in permanent restoration the building has a forceful personality unmatched by any other Baroque palace on this side of the river.
The Gallas family exists no more one of the very few of the 'ersle Gesellschafl' to die out but at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when this palace was built, the family was to spawn not only ambassadors to England but also viceroys of Naples. This dazzling pile is as fine an epitaph for them as any funerary monument.
The Charles Bridge Prague
From here the Karlova, which is usually being dug up for tram lines, leads to the Charles Bridge. Before crossing this most spectacular of bridges, a slight detour to the right will bring one to the remains of the former ghetto. Once divided from the rest of the old town by walls, the ghetto was a focus for trade and intellectuals. During the reign of the reforming eighteenth-century Joseph I I the walls were demolished and Jews began to playa vital part in the public life of the city.
The Kfizovnicka which leads to it ironically takes us past a veritable barrack of Catholicism in the form of the Clementinum.
Prague is expressive of the power once enjoyed by the Jesuits in the country. Its libraries are rich in barley-sugar columns, with a tower for stargazing and courtyards for masquerades in which various Dei ex machina would chasten those weak in faith. Today, the only chastening comes from the sullen porters, who insist on making it as difficult as possible to see either the refectory, mathematical room or library.
The Jewish Cemetary in Prague
Beyond the Clementinum is a wall behind which trees enclose a small elevated garden littered with tombs. This is the Jewish cemetery, perhaps one of the best-known and certainly most bizarre sights of Central Europe. Laid out in the fifteenth century, it was the principal Jewish burial ground of the city until 1787, since when no more graves have been added. The selective eye of the camera captures the melancholy decay of this place more than a long sustained glance, although even without any knowledge of Hebrew the visitor will find several of the tombstones merit close inspection for their decoration. Of the 20,000 to be seen, the oldest dates from 1439, while the most valuable all date from the eighteenth century.
It may be tempting to linger here, with the sunlight filtering through the trees, but there are more cheery sights to be explored over the Charles Bridge. The slight curve of the bridge, with its distant pinnacles and the Baroque dome of St Nicholas's beyond, cry out for galloping horses, but the days when it was possible to ride across are long past and we should be content to walk slowly under the watchful eyes of the statues of St Francis Xavier and his pious companions.
The most notable of these is the bronze statue of St John Nepomuk, the patron saint of Bohemia. He stands in the middle of the bridge and is the work of Matthias Rauchmuller of Nuremberg, who excuted it in 1683. Between the sixth and the seventh pillars on the right is a slab of marble with a cross, marking the spot where the saint is said to have been flung from the bridge in 1383 by order of Wenzel IV for refusing to betray what his wife the empress had told him in the confessional. According to legend, the body then floated for a con-siderable time in the river with five brilliant stars hovering over its head.
As well as the memory of these events, the bridge also affords incomparable views of the Hradcany castle, with its Baroque facades, and, to the left, the stately and recently renovated National Theatre. At night, the view is even more picturesque, while in winter the steam rising from the freezing water adds even more to the impressiveness forged here by masonry and nature.
Although it was restored during the first decade of this century, it remains in atmosphere remarkably medieval and serves today as the evangelical church of the Bohemian Brothers. On the nearby Uhelny trh, the house at the corner with the arches is believed to be where Mozart lived in 1787. A plaque and a crumbling relief over the main facade commemorate this.
From here the Skofepka leads to Betlemske mim, where the twin white gables of the Bethlem chapel seem rather new for a building purporting to be medieval. This is because the original chapel was demolished at the end of the eighteenth century and what we now see is the work of Jaroslav Fnigner, carried out to the original plans but during the 1950S. The reason for this unique and in its own way remarkable piece of reconstruction of what is at first glance a far from distinguished building is that it was here that Jan Hus held some of his earliest services in Czech rather than Latin.
The Husova Prague
The Husova, which runs from here, contains the large Dominican church erected in 1339-71 by Drzice and Arnost von Pardubice but later given a Baroque interior by Frantisek Spacek in the 1730S. The showy stucco decoration of the interior dates from this time and contains sculptures by Matthias Schonherr. The Husova itself is one of the oldest streets in Prague and is rich in gables, although the narrowness of the street makes them difficult to appreciate.
On the right down the Karlova is the Male nam., or small square or ring, a welcome space adorned by a faultless series of buildings whose pediments and gables make as pretty a skyline as can be seen in Central Europe. At the centre of this square is an iron-surrounded Renaissance fountain dating from the sixteenth century.
To the left of this, the Petzold house has a late Renaissance facade with sgraffito decoration, while behind the fountain is the Judge's House, with a classical portal attributed to Johann Kranner, who is believed to have built it in 1798. There are several cafes here where, despite a service which is almost Balkan in its slowness, a pleasant half-hour can be spent taking in these restful surroundings.
The Male nam. leads directly to the most important square in the old tarometske nam. Graced at one end by the tower of the Town Hall and at the other by the twin towers of the Teyn church, this must be one of the most beautiful squares in the world. Without waiting to examine each of the Jewels which make up the whole, the thing to do now is to ascend the tower of the Town Hall. Far less exhausting than that of St Stephen's cathedral in Vienna, it is sufficiently low to provide at close quarters a view of the roofs and gables which are so elusive from the narrow street.
The Hradcany Castle Prague
Across the river rises the barrack of a palace which is the Hradcany castle embracing the Gothic cathedral of St Vitus. On the horizon there are some alarming concrete blocks of flats, but these sinister things should be ignored and the picturesque sights immediately below examined more carefully. As well as its tower, the Town Hall is graced by a magnificent astronomical clock.
The work of Nikolaus von Kadail, dating from about 1410, the clock has been restored several times. The Gothic detailing and statuary of the clock belong partly to the beginning of the fifteenth century and partly to the early sixteenth. The allegories of the twelve months are, however, only an 1864 copy of the original.
Next to this is a fine piece of middle-pointed Gothic around the door to the Town Hall. This dates from 1475 and is believed to have been the work of Matej Rejsek, a mason who also worked on part of St Vitus's cathedral. His name is also associated with the beautiful 'Erker chapel' beneath the tower, an exquisite oriel window, dating from 1389 but adorned with coats of arms from a century later. The chapel was de¬stroyed during the war but has been partly restored. At the corner stands a copy of a Gothic Madonna.
The main wing of the building next to this is nineteenth-century Gothic revival. To the right of the Town Hall, the square opens up dramatically towards the Baroque facade of St Nicholas's church, an important work of Kilian Dientzenhofer dating from the 1730S with sculpture by Anton Braun. Originally built by the Benedictines, the church now belongs to the Czechoslovak state and is rarely open to the public. Inside, the frescoes are the work of the Bavarian painter Cosmas D. Asam and recall the legend of St Benedict and St Nicholas.
Near the centre of the square stands a rather incongruous, straggling group of statues built in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of John Hus. It is a strange mixture of realism and art nouveau, but whatever its merits as an individual work of art, it cannot be seen as a happy addition to the square.
The Gothic School Prague
To the east of this, in front of the twin towers of the Teyn church, rise the picturesque gables of the early Gothic Teyn school. The gables are curiously reminiscent of some Venetian scuola and are later than the rest of the building. The highly ornate Rococo palace to its right is the former Goltz-Kinsky palace, built between 1755 and 1765 to K. I. Dientzenhofer's designs. Today it contains the absorbing graphic collection of the Czech National Gallery.
The Teyn Church Prague
The Teyn church, so often covered in scaffolding, has been under restoration for years, but if progress continues at the present pace it may soon be possible to see more than just the twin pointed towers crowned by four graceful turrets and the high-pitched roof which was added in 1460 shortly after George Podiebrad was crowned King of Bohemia here.
It was he who caused the facade to be adorned by a large chalice, the symbol of the Hussites whose church this was. But after the battle of the White Mountain (1620) the chalice was replaced by an image of the Virgin. With a little luck, it should at least be possible to see the round-arched north doorway, dating from 1390. This imposing baldachin arch, with its delicate tracery, is attributed to Peter Parler, the great medieval craftsman. The lower right console contains two beautiful sculptures of the evangelists Mark and John.
Inside, the church seems at first to be rather cluttered. The Gothic vaulting and arcades are filled with high altars, of which that under a Gothic baldachin in the north aisle is the most interesting. The work of Matej Rejsek, it dates from the last decade of the fifteenth century. Attached to the last south-eastern pier is the red-marble tombstone of the celebrated Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (d. 1601), who was invited to Prague in 1599.
In front of this sombre figure, clutching in one hand a globe and in the other quite wisely, given the turbulence of the times a sword, there is a magnificent Baroque candelabra. These and a pewter Gothic font are the chief treasures of the church, although there is some Gothic wooden carving on several of the side altars which should not be overlooked.
From the Teyn church, return to the Town Hall, perhaps lingering at The door numbered 601. This leads to a courtyard at the end of which a further door brings us into the dark and sombre interior. over some Slovak wine at a nearby bar before taking the Karlova, where almost immediately to our right a quartet of Titans struggling to support a heavy Baroque portal remind us of the presence in this city of another great Baroque architect whose dramatic sculpture we are already familiar with: Fischer von Erlach.
In the few minutes spent wandering around the old town, it has been possible to admire the achievements of the two great Dientzenhofer architects and recognize a lighter less exuberant Baroque. Here Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach's palace takes us back to the exotic world of Prince Eugen's Winter Palace in Vienna with something of a jolt.
The lavish mass of the Clam-Gallas Palace at the end of the narrow Husova has a profusion of relief carving which is unmistakably Viennese. For years, its blackened fatyade has been covered in scaffolding and its fine Carlo Carlone frescoes around the splendid staircase are almost impossible to see, but even in permanent restoration the building has a forceful personality unmatched by any other Baroque palace on this side of the river.
The Gallas family exists no more one of the very few of the 'ersle Gesellschafl' to die out but at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when this palace was built, the family was to spawn not only ambassadors to England but also viceroys of Naples. This dazzling pile is as fine an epitaph for them as any funerary monument.
The Charles Bridge Prague
From here the Karlova, which is usually being dug up for tram lines, leads to the Charles Bridge. Before crossing this most spectacular of bridges, a slight detour to the right will bring one to the remains of the former ghetto. Once divided from the rest of the old town by walls, the ghetto was a focus for trade and intellectuals. During the reign of the reforming eighteenth-century Joseph I I the walls were demolished and Jews began to playa vital part in the public life of the city.
The Kfizovnicka which leads to it ironically takes us past a veritable barrack of Catholicism in the form of the Clementinum.
Prague is expressive of the power once enjoyed by the Jesuits in the country. Its libraries are rich in barley-sugar columns, with a tower for stargazing and courtyards for masquerades in which various Dei ex machina would chasten those weak in faith. Today, the only chastening comes from the sullen porters, who insist on making it as difficult as possible to see either the refectory, mathematical room or library.
The Jewish Cemetary in Prague
Beyond the Clementinum is a wall behind which trees enclose a small elevated garden littered with tombs. This is the Jewish cemetery, perhaps one of the best-known and certainly most bizarre sights of Central Europe. Laid out in the fifteenth century, it was the principal Jewish burial ground of the city until 1787, since when no more graves have been added. The selective eye of the camera captures the melancholy decay of this place more than a long sustained glance, although even without any knowledge of Hebrew the visitor will find several of the tombstones merit close inspection for their decoration. Of the 20,000 to be seen, the oldest dates from 1439, while the most valuable all date from the eighteenth century.
It may be tempting to linger here, with the sunlight filtering through the trees, but there are more cheery sights to be explored over the Charles Bridge. The slight curve of the bridge, with its distant pinnacles and the Baroque dome of St Nicholas's beyond, cry out for galloping horses, but the days when it was possible to ride across are long past and we should be content to walk slowly under the watchful eyes of the statues of St Francis Xavier and his pious companions.
The most notable of these is the bronze statue of St John Nepomuk, the patron saint of Bohemia. He stands in the middle of the bridge and is the work of Matthias Rauchmuller of Nuremberg, who excuted it in 1683. Between the sixth and the seventh pillars on the right is a slab of marble with a cross, marking the spot where the saint is said to have been flung from the bridge in 1383 by order of Wenzel IV for refusing to betray what his wife the empress had told him in the confessional. According to legend, the body then floated for a con-siderable time in the river with five brilliant stars hovering over its head.
As well as the memory of these events, the bridge also affords incomparable views of the Hradcany castle, with its Baroque facades, and, to the left, the stately and recently renovated National Theatre. At night, the view is even more picturesque, while in winter the steam rising from the freezing water adds even more to the impressiveness forged here by masonry and nature.
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