Friday, August 27, 2010

Church of St. Nicholas, Mala Strana

We had planned to skip this one--how many Baroque churches do you have to see?--but it was right across the street from a restaurant we liked, and something told me it was worth the (modest) admission fee.
St. Nicholas from street level












Interior; knock-out Counter-Reformation
Baroque to the hilt












Altar













Impressive dome









Nave ceiling











Organ












Interesting pose, Vicki thought











Skewering another Protestant

Hradcany Castle

It's way too large for a photo, built in the Middle Ages, and added on to since.

But first, today's wedding photo shoot shot, in the castle
square (we see one nearly every day)





The Czech crown, etc.; hasn't been used for quite a while
















Interior of St. George's Basilica, a 10th
century chapel on the premises













The basilica itself







View out the state rooms' windows (the usual no pix policy
enforced)








The view: the domes and roof of St. Nicholas', in Mala
Strana, below the castle hill




The Moldau and Charles Bridge below











The City of Spires, it's called









Ditto

St. Vitus' Cathedral

St. Vitus' is in the Hradcany Castle complex, on the west side of the town, on a hill over-looking the Moldau. Parts of the castle go back to the 11th century or earlier. St. Vitus took some 600 years to build, started in the 13th century, finished in the 19th. It is quite large and high, with beautiful windows and scultpure, very much the national cathedral of the Czech Republic.
West facade and towers; flaming Gothic, as
you can see












Interior











Beautiful windows (Mucha's the best, we
thought; see earlier post)












Stained light on the floor










Ceiling; note tracery at top of windows












Tomb of St. Vitus; the original church was
built around it in the 10th century













A royal tomb













Rose window











St. Wenceslas chapel






East side, buttresses, spires and tower

Alfons Mucha

Alfons Mucha is to Prague what Antoni Gaudi is to Barcelona; one sees Mucha's work everywhere. We went to the Mucha Museum and to an exhibit at the Municipal House, and later, to the Slavic Epic in Moravsik Krumlov, in Moravia.

You may never have heard of Mucha, but
you have seen his work and that of many
imitators; the Style Mucha is nearly
synonymous with Art Nouveau...slinky
women, flowers, extravagant ornamentation












Typical












After a few years' struggle in Paris, he took
the arts world by storm--applied/commercial/
graphic arts--in the 1890s as the poster artist
for Sara Bernhardt; after that, nearly
everything bottled or packaged came to have
a Mucha design; champagnes, biscuit tins,
cigar boxes, you name it

















The Mucha window in St. Vitus' Cathedral











Closer up; wildly successful as a commercial artist, he
devoted the second half of his life to nationalism and
"serious" art, painting the 20 massive canvasses of the
Slav Epic--we'll see later--this stained glass window
in St. Vitus', as well as currency, postage stamps, and
other items for the newly created post-WWI Czechslovakia
(the Hapsburgs had ruled Czechslovakia for centuries)

Municipal House

Sights from the beautiful Municipal House and the main square in Stare Mesto.
The Medieval Tower next to the Municipal
House













Smetana Hall, the great concert hall in the Municipal House








Entry oramentation for the Municipal House







One of the several gorgeous restaurants





Another
















Downstairs, the Czech dining room/beer hall, incredible
paneling








Glass-work like this everywhere








Nearby, towers of the Church of Our Lady of Tyn








The massive statue to Jan Hus, in the main square; Hus was
the earliest of Protestant reformers, burnt at the stake after
his capture (by deceit) and refusal to recant











Rathaus tower and the astronomical clock;
the crowd was wowed, but we've seen better...

Old New Synagogue

Prague's Jewish Quarter, the Josefov, is one of Europe's oldest and largest and includes many historic sites.
Not least of which is the Old New
Synagogue, Europe's oldest surviving
synagogue













Built in the 13th century, small but identifiably Gothic in
architecture; only very slightly enlarged and remodeled
from that time







More interior










Sanctum sanctorum, so to speak











Still more interior







Slits cut in the thick wall so the women-folk could peer in






Medieval donation box








Flag in the shape of the hats Jews were forced to wear














Another, younger synagogue











With clocks







We're still pondering this one, although it is clear the
woman on the right is listening to an iPod













A glimpse into the old Jewish cemetery,
where some 100,000 are buried, under
12,000 headstones; they were allotted very
little space