Enchanting Prague - part 2

The New Town, or Nové Město in Czech, is the relatively new part of the city - the youngest of the five independent cities that comprise today's Prague. I say relatively, because it was founded in 14th century. Still pretty ancient by some standards!







This sign was posted inside a tram we took to the castle. The English translation is on the right.

What's funny, is that the word "pozor", which means "attention", or "alert", in Czech, means "shame" in Russian, so the sign gets a whole new meaning...

Roxy and Vicky making some new friends...

Karlův Most -or Charles Bridge- over the Vltava river is so named in honor of king Charles the 4th, who ordered it to be built. It was at the time the only bridge connecting the Old Town to the castle and the outlying lands, and therefore was guarded by monasteries on each side. The Knights of the Cross with the Red Star diligently collected the toll from those who were able to pay for passage. The poor folk had to swim across the river to get to the Old Town.

There are 30 statues decorating the bridge, mostly of saints, some of them by famous masters. Most originals have been replaced by replicas and moved to a museum - but some were just too large and complex and had to be left on the bridge. Here is one of them, depicting missionaries freeing Christian slaves from Turk captivity.

Passing under the bridge tower and toward the Castle.


These romantic-looking boats under the bridge are for river cruises. The place had a medieval feel to it, which was enhanced by the sailors in impeccably white robes singing and dancing down there at the landing.
Oh, and prior to the cruise we were handed a cup of hot drink and a gingerbread or ice cream each. Roxy says the ice cream was good. I can say that the gingerbread was delicious, too.






Views of Prague from the river. I did wish at this point the weather was a little brighter, because the view was breathtaking - but I guess the gloominess might have its appeal, too.










An old mill.




Back to firm land, let's walk through the Old Town some more.




One of the most popular attractions in Prague - this medieval astronomical clock, mounted on the Old Town city hall tower. It is simply amazing to learn how much information was built into this contraption. There is the astronomical dial, which shows the positions of the Sun and the Moon in the sky plus some other interesting information: there is a Zodiac ring, there is modern Central European time in Roman numerals and old Czech time (or Italian hours), where the 24th hour indicated the time of sunset, which varies during the year. There is also a calendar (the lower dial), indicating not only the day of the year, but also the names associated with that day (saints mostly). The funny thing is, if you don't name your child after one of the saints on the clock, you have to pay for their name. Therefore, as in many countries, the Czech celebrate not only their birthday, but also their name day (the day of the saint they were named after), thus having two celebrations a year.


There are four figures around the clock dial, which (quote from Wikipedia) represent four things that were despised at the time of the clock's making. From left to right in the photographs, the first is Vanity, represented by a figure admiring himself in a mirror. Next, a Jew holding a bag of gold represents greed or usury. Across the clock stands Death, a skeleton that strikes the time upon the hour. Finally, the infidel Turk wears the Turban. There is also a presentation of statues of the Apostles at the doorways above the clock, with all twelve presented at noon.








All that was so complicated and hard to read, that eventually another, simple clock was mounted on the other side of the same tower for normal people to be able to tell the time.





Too bad none of those clocks can predict weather! There, it's raining again!

A lot of buildings in the Old Town have the original business owner's advertisement painted on the facade. All of those paintings are works of art, and some are done by famous artists. We learned from our guide that owners of historic buildings are required to pay for their upkeeping. This is good news and accounts for the fresh look and good repair of most downtown buildings. The bad news is that the steep expenses forced a lot of older businesses out of their original places, and the best locations are taken over by big hotel and retail chains. The original owner can often be seen on a small street right behind the corner from where their 17th century advertisement still adorns the building facade.

Speaking of retail, shops in Prague were absolutely irresistible, and coming from someone not so keen on shopping like myself it means they really were. The Czech are famous for their exquisite glass, and there are so many little glass shops downtown, one doesn't know which way to turn! The sell just about everything made of glass. There is glass jewelery, glass souvenirs, little glass figurines (each a work of art0, glass and crystal dishes and cups... you name it!

Witches, jesters, clowns and soldiers in a small toy store.





One of the main points of interest in Prague is the Jewish quarter, included in every tour. Here is Wikipedia again:

Josefov (also Jewish quarter) is the former Jewish Ghetto of the town. Jews are believed to have settled in Prague as early as the 10th century. The first pogrom was in 1096 and eventually they were concentrated within a walled Ghetto.
This ghetto was most prosperous towards the end of the 16th century when the Jewish Mayor, Mordecai Maisel, became the Minister of Finance and a very wealthy man. His money helped develop the ghetto.

Most of the quarter was demolished between 1893 and 1913 as part of an initiative to model the city on Paris. What was left were only six synagogues, the old cemetery, and the Old Jewish Town Hall (now all part of the Jewish Museum.)


With only six synagogues, the old cemetery, and the Old Jewish Town Hall the Nazi German occupation could have been expected to complete the demolition of the old ghetto. However the area was preserved in order to provide a site for a planned "exotic museum of an extinct race". This meant that the Nazis gathered Jewish artifacts from all over central Europe for display in Josefov.



Here are some of the sights from Jewish quarter.

Maisel synagogue






The Jewish Ceremonial Hall




The interior of Pinkas synagogue, which is now a memorial to Holocaust martyrs. The walls of the synagogue are covered with nearly 80 000 names of Czech and Moravian Jews, killed by the Nazis.



Synagogue interior.







The Old Jewish Cemetery, which dates back to 15th century, is said to be the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe. It is a tiny piece of land adjacent to one of the synagogues and contains an amazing 12 000 burials. Because the city refused to provide the Jewish community with a new burial ground, the Jews had to bury their dead on top the old tombs. There are 12 layers of burials in the cemetery now!










Statue of the great writer Franz Kafka, who was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Prague. In one of his stories, called Description of a Struggle, Kafka wrote about a young fellow helped at night by a very tall and large man, whose face he could not remember later. This inspired the sculptor to create a statue of Kafka himself astride a headless man.





One more point of interest in the Jewish quarter is this clock atop the Old Jewish Town Hall, with Hebrew letters instead of numbers on the dial. Naturally, the hands move backward, or counterclockwise (oxymoron, really). As with the astronomical clock, another clock was mounted on the same tower later for the benefit of us simple folk.



Only one of the three days we spent in Prague was sunny, and how did a little bit of sun change everything! The city looked so cheerful and colorful, and it was nice and warm. Let's part with Prague while in a sunny mood! I do hope to be back one day!