More Of Mala Strana And Smichov

Another day we decided to walk more of Mala Strana, particularly the riverfront, and then on to Smichov, its market and (Flemish) French fries. Many interesting sights.

Vicki surveys the scene, the Vltava and New Town

Outside the Kafka Museum: "One morning Gregor Samsa awoke
to find he had been transformed into a perpetually pissing bronze
statue..."

Museum not visited

Narrowest alley ever, so far

Famous bookstore (on the Left Bank, too)

At the shot shop; public drinking apparently OK in this precinct

Approaching the Campa sculpture museum: David Cerny's Babies

Closer up

Untitled, by Anonymous

Click to enlarge and read the quote

Montana sculpture

Amazing sequence department: along come some swans and
four guys, unusually suited, paddling an inflatable

Thus

We figure a) they are trying to capture the swans, b) they are going
to do the white water at the dam, c) they are part of the Czech Olympic
inflatable crew team, or d) none of the above

Dangerously close to the white water, the swans turn

The correct answer is d) none of the above; they were just four
construction workers returning from a beer break

Upper Mala Strana street scene

More pretty buildings

Still processing this one

Unusually well-organized veggie stand at the
market (just root veggies on this side...) in Smichov

And more interesting buildings

Not pictured: best frites in Prague at Fancy Fries

Municipal House, 2022

This is our third visit to Prague, so there are previous blogposts on the Municipal House, one of the city's (and the world's) major sites:

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2010/08/municipal-house.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2012/07/pragues-municipal-house.html

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2012/07/more-pragues-municipal-house.html

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2012/07/prague-out-takes.html.

As in previous instances of this sort of thing, I am alternatively embarrassed or impressed that, over the course of a decade, I have taken pretty much the same pix of the same things from the same angles. Draw such conclusions as you will. The pix from 2012 are relatively comprehensive, but not captioned. I guess I was in a hurry. So here I'll post the best recent shots, with captions, plus some new or improved ones. The 2012 out-takes include pix of the Municipal House's art nouveau and art deco HVAC registers, a topic ignored in most other accounts. In addition to Smetana Hall, for which it is best known, the Municipal House contains a dozen or more smaller halls, ladies' and gents' withdrawing room, now mostly used for important city affairs, ceremonies, weddings, receptions, etc. It is mostly these that the tour visits.

Full frontal of the Municipal House; opened in 1912

Oddly, the tour actually gathers in the gift shop; but it is certainly
one of the better shops anywhere for art nouveau, art deco, Mucha,
and such

The ceiling in Smetana Hall; click to enlarge

Smetana Hall is adorned with much art work, including
four large paintings of Music, Dance, Poetry, and Drama;
this is Poetry; for more pix of Smetana Hall, see the
previous post from a concert we attended a couple weeks
ago

Still in Smetana Hall; I guess these count as caryatids....

Now moving through the various halls...here, an
art deco aquarium

One of the ladies' drawing rooms/lounges; the coffee/espresso
machine was from 1903

Ceiling detail from one of the art deco/exotic rooms

Now in one of the larger halls, part of a huge panel entitled Life,
this section obviously "youth"

"Midlife; yeah, I remember being in meetings like this...

Overhead, "Retirement"

"End of Life"; forgot the name of the late 19th century painter;
captions are mine

Now in the very famous Mucha room, designed and executed
solely by the artist himself

By the time he got to doing this room, Mucha was well passed
his commercial art phase--for which he is most famous--and
well into his Slav Epic phase

An HVAC register not in my 2012 posts; designed by Mucha, are
we to assume?

He also did sculpture

Haunting figures...just like the Slav Epic, which
we saw in 2010; ownership and display of the Slav
Epic is a matter of contention; it was in Prague 
for several years, but is now back in Moravsik 
Krumlov, where we saw it; call ahead...

And presumably, he designed the huge curtain as well

Art deco display case elsewhere I liked

And another extraordinary HVAC register, not previously posted

Typical chandelier

Municipal House elevator