23rd Sept 2015
Castles, rain,
gargoyles, sausages, and ham.
Today was out day
for visiting the castle – But unfortunately we woke up to an overcast sky and
light rain. So we donned our wet weather
gear, took my big Lotus umbrella, and headed off for our tram. We had found out that if we took a No 1 tram
instead of a No 9, it would take us all the way up to the castle on the other
side of town, instead of going down town and then having to find a No 22 to get
us up to the castle. Tickets are
purchased on a time basis, not a trip, so as long as we could get where we were
going in 30 minutes, we would be OK and still travelled for the same price as
going downtown. In the end, we missed
out stop for the castle and went off `cross town, so since we were still inside
our 30 minutes, we were able to jump off, catch the same No 1 tram going the
other way, and go back to the stop we wanted, all on the same ticket. Too easy……..
Where we got off
was in fact not the castle and Royal Palace, but the entry to the Royal Gardens
– You have to walk through the gardens to get to the Royal Castle and St Vitus
Cathedral. First we passed the Pisecka
Brana, the Pisek Gate, a former City Gate in Prague’s fortification wall. We then came to the Royal Gardens, with the
old Royal Summer Palace (now a museum) on our left, and then on through the
gardens with trees and plants from all over the world. Walking through the
gardens we were at the back of the Castle, and had good views across the old
moat ditch of the Powder
We finally made
it to the 2nd Courtyard and managed to buy tickets as well as a
guided tour of the Old Palace and St Vitus’ Cathedral. While we waited for the tour to start we went
to a
We then went for
a quick look at the tiny houses of Golden Lane before our guided tour,
intending to come back again later. The
11 tiny houses date from the 15th century and was originally known
as Goldsmith’s Lane, after the many Alchemists who originally lived there
! We then rushed back to meet our tour,
and set off to St Vitus Cathedral – And by now it had stopped raining, at
last.
St Vitus is the
biggest and most important church in the Czech Republic, and the first church
on this location was built in 930. In
about 1060 a larger church was built, and finally in 1344 a new and bigger
church was started. However the
construction was slow and by the time of the death of the architect in 1397
only the choir and transept were completed.
This was partly because the Emperor kept assigning new work to the
architect, Peter Parler, such as the
ornate Charles Bridge across the Vitava River. Then the Hussite War in the
early 15th
The Cathedral
also contains the baroque silver tomb of St John of Nepomuck, and the Habsburg
Royal Mausoleum of Ferdinand I and his family, from 1571 – 1589. Quite an amazing Cathedral, both visually and
historically.
After the
Cathedral it was on to the Old Royal Palace, where we first saw the Vladislav
Hall, constructed at the beginning of the 15th Century, and the
scene of not only Coronation festivities and banquest, but even of medieval
jousting tournaments on horse back, with sand covering the floors ! Then there was the Diet, or Government
rooms, and also a room in the Chancellery where in 1618 two Governors and a
scribe were thown from the windows into the most ditch, marking the start of
the uprising which led to the 30 Years War from 1618 – 1648. It should be noted that this action (throwing
people out of windows) became a habit, and is called defenestration ! A good one for scrabble lovers !! There is even an entrance to the Vadislav
Hall which is specially designed to allow knights to enter the Hall on
horseback for the jousting competitions.
That was the end
of our guided tour, but we took ourselves around the remainder of the castle
grounds, The Rosenberg Palace, which is actually housed the Institute of
Gentlewomen – In fact a refuge for noble women who had fallen on hard times,
and was more like a monastery, but it gave them somewhere to live ! One room in this palace is set up to detail
the many gargoyles on the St Vitus Cathedral – Few are original due to the
ravages of time, but all have been replaced with copies, while the originals
are still in storage. There are some
wonderful and suitably ghastly gargoyles in place !
We then went back
to look at the Golden Lane, only to be denied entry – “Only allowed one visit”
!! So our plan to return for a more
complete look at this lane was thwarted by bureaucracy !
We paid a quick
visit to the Powder Tower, which now forms a museum to the history of the
Palace Guards over the years, and is interesting due to the changes to the
status of the guards over time, particularly during the more recent Soviet
occupation years.
We then left
through the front gates of the palace, where the guards were in place, and came
out to a fantastic view overlooking Prague – And hot food stands with all sorts
of delicacies for sale ! I made do with a really good spicy Czech sausage, and
we then set off down the long hill back to the Charles Bridge and the Old City.
The buildings along the way are just incredible – In fat, if I have one
complaint about Prague, it is that there are almost too many amazing buildings
and squares – One just keeps
We walked back up
through the streets to our tram stop near St Wenceslas Square, jumped on our No
9, and headed back to our camp site. A
great day. A great city. A very big city
!
Giles, I think the is a separate story her about the various types of sausages you have eaten in the different contries you and travelled through !!! Daryl
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