Day 12 ~ Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. The city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million. Prague has been a political, cultural and economic center of Europe and particularly central Europe during its 1,100 year existence.  

This is a view of the Prague Castle as seen from the Charles Bridge. Construction on the bridge started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. As the only means of crossing the River Vltava until 1841, the Charles Bridge was the most important connection between Prague Castle and the city's Old Town.

Guards like these are found at each entrance of the Prague Castle.  If you didn’t look closely, you would swear they were wax figures.

This is a fountain inside one of the three court yards in the castle. Prague Castle is where the Kings of Bohemia, Holy Roman Emperors and presidents of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic have had their offices. According to Guinness Book of Records, Prague Castle is the biggest castle in the world. History of the castle stretches back to the 9th century.

Saint Vitus' Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral located within Prague Castle and contains the tombs of many Bohemian Kings and Holy Roman Emperors. This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. In 1929, the St. Vitus Cathedral was finally finished, 600 years after it was begun. 

The Prague Astronomical Clock is a medieval astronomical clock first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the only one still working. The clock is mounted on the southern wall of Old Town City Hall in the Old Town Square. The clock mechanism itself is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky; "The Walk of the Apostles," a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures, and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months

The Church of Our Lady before Týn is a dominant feature of the Old Town and has been the main church of this part of the city since the 14th century.

Jewish Prague

Jews are believed to have settled in Prague as early as the 10th century. The first pogrom (ethnic cleansing) was in 1096, and eventually Jews were concentrated within a walled Ghetto. Through the centuries, the Jews suffered further persecution; and between 1893 and 1913, most of the quarter was demolished. With the Nazi German occupation one could have expected the 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 Jewish Prague..

The Old-New Synagogue, built in the middle of the 13th century, is one of the oldest surviving synagogues in Europe. It is one of three active synagogues in Prague where services are still held.

The Old Jewish Cemetery was established in the first half of the 15th century and is one of the most important surviving monuments in Jewish Prague, along with the Old-New Synagogue.Today, the cemetery contains almost 12,000 tombstones although the number of persons buried there is much greater because people were buried in layers..

What a beautiful city Prague is!  Around every corner was another lovely surprise. Bonnie wasn’t feeling up-to-par this morning so she didn’t join us until our afternoon tour of the Jewish Quarter. She had been to Prague before so she was familiar with the sites we saw.