Thursday, March 20, 2008

EASTER IN PRAGUE - PART ONE

CITY OF A HUNDRED SPIRES - MARCH 1997

Prague, whose town centre was included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1992, is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Located by Vltava (Moldau) River in central Bohemia, it has been the political, cultural, and economic centre for the Czechs in the last 1100 years. In 1997, end of March, profiting from Easter holidays, we visited Prague. I've never seen so many Spanish adolescent/students together in my life...


"THE RUDOLFINUM, one of the most important neo-renaissance buildings in Prague, was constructed during the years 1876–1884 and named in honour of Rudolf of Hapsburg, Crown Prince of Austria, who presided the opening on February 8, 1885. It was originally designed as an art gallery and House of Artists and in 1946 it became the seat of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. However, from 1918 to 1938 and a short period after World War II (1945-1946), it also housed the Czechoslovak Parliament"



"CANAL CESTOVKA, quite close to the Vltava River"


"CHARLES BRIDGE - The construction of the bridge dates from the reign of the King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who, according to the legend, controlled everything up to the smallest detail. The oddest seems to be the date of its foundation: 5:31 am, 9. 07. 1357. Only odd digits and, except 9, all prime numbers!"


"UP THE HILL - View towards the Castle from the 1464 Lesser Bridge Tower"


"CHARLES BRIDGE - View from the same tower towards the Bridge"


"ROYAL ROUTE gets its name from the coronation processions of the Bohemian Kings, starting with George of Podebrady in 1458. It used to link the gates of Old Prague to the Prague Castle, a route full of houses with beautiful façades"


"TO THE CASTLE"



"ST. VITO - The Gothic cathedral, whose original name is St Vitus, St Wenceslas and St Adalbert Cathedral, is the biggest and the most important church in the Czech Republic. It's the place where the coronations of the kings of Bohemia were held until 1836 and also where saints, kings, princes and emperors of Bohemia are buried"


"BELL TOWER - View from the 14th century Bell Tower on the southern side of the Cathedral"


"GOLDEN LANE - The Street was created during the construction of the northern fortification at the end of the 15th century. In 1597 the emperor Rudolf II decided that the 24 marksmen who guarded the castle should live there. However, as space was at premium, the marksmen had to build very small houses for their families"


"PETRIN TOWER - Built in 1891 for the Jubilee Exhibition, this small version of the Eiffel Tower offers one of the best views of Prague and its surroundings. The tower, on the top of Petrin hill, is only 60m tall but you need to climb 299 steps to reach the platform for the magnificent view"


"OLD TOWN BRIDGE TOWER - Designed by Peter Parler at the end of the 14th century, it's a beautiful Gothic construction. Further to being an ornament for Charles Bridge, it was used as a watch tower and part of the defensive structure"


"VLTAVA RIVER, Charles Bridge and St. Vito Cathedral"


"OLD TOWN FAÇADE"


"WALLENSTEIN GARDEN was built in 1623–30, together with the first large secular palace of the Baroque era - the Wallenstein Palace, nowadays the seat of the Senate of the Czech Republic. Many statues that you see there, representing heroes from Greek mythology, are copies of the ones made by artist Adrian de Vries, as the original works were plundered by Swedish as war booty in 1648. The copies were brought to the garden only in 1912-1918"

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

By the time we went to Prague, the video camera was always at work. So pictures were seldom taken, and mostly from cheap disposable cameras. Furthermore, most of the pictures on this post were scanned from old paper photos, just a few from film negatives. Thus, the quality is far from being impressive. Anyhow, I dared show them, so that other Prague visitors may be happy to see that their pictures aren’t that bad when compared… ;)
Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Hi Samantha, thanks very much for your visit and comment (first time, I think)!
We also have some traditions in Easter; the most common is the «folar» (an Easter cake), the chocolate eggs and the sugar covered almonds... Terrible for your diet! ;))
Hope you enjoy your stay in Prague this time and look forward to seeing you visiting and commenting also on Blogtrotter!
Enjoy your Easter holiday!

hpy said...

Prague must be a very beautiful city.

Marguerite-marie said...

je suis allée à Prague , a long time ago...en 1969 l'année après "l'invasion "du pays frère" la Russie" j'avais trouvé que c'est une très belle ville mais l'ambiance était lourde...
Bonne fête de Pâques et merci de ta visite.

Anonymous said...

I don't think a lot of people in the U.S. realize how beautiful Prague is. I found the graveyards to be so beautiful and haunting. Have a wonderful Easter Gil.

Anonymous said...

HPY,
It is! Thanks!

Marguerite-Marie,
Merci. En 69 ça a l'air d'avoir été dur...

Victor,
Thanks. No ads please! «Strength and stability of the political and economic environment» would be a great for Jon Stewart "You wrote it, You watch it..." ;))

isa said...

In your usual, thorough fashion, you left no stone unturned...Well, maybe the Jewish Quarter...
And no photo of Prague could be bad ;-)

Happy Easter, Gil!

(Looks like both Samantha and Victor are spammers).

Chuckeroon said...

Oh, Trotter you take me back! High up on the hill, and that curve in road where the partisans ambushed (Heidrich?) the Gauleiter and so on and on......My Czecho days were aeons ago- and very exciting, too. Woooo! I cld tell some stories...and not about stag parties.

Anonymous said...

Isabella,
Thanks! As far as Jewish quarter, you'll have to wait for Part Two... ;))
Spammers deleted!

Chuckeroon,
That would be interesting to hear... Heydrich (Brigadier General) was ambushed by Czech partisans in 1942. The most (in)famous Gauleiter (for Berlin) was Goebbels...

Dawning One said...

Never been to Prague. My son went last year and said it was really beautiful and your photos prove it.
Have a good Easter, and enjoy those sugar coated almonds! ;)

Anonymous said...

Dawning One,
Thanks! Prague is lovely!!!
Sugar coated almonds are a Great disaster... ;)))

lyliane six said...

Que de bons souvenirs, j'ai beaucoup aimé cette ville et espère y retourner à une autre saison.D'autres commentaires et d'autres photos, viennent compléter mon court voyage là bas , mais à une période magnifique de l'année.Merci.Joyeuses Pâques

Anonymous said...

Lyliane,
Merci. Je sais qui tu as beaucoup aimé Prague, la belle...

Dalicia said...

ahhh my memories of prague. i didn't like their main train station!!! the people weren't helpful at all :P

Anonymous said...

Dalicia,
Sorry that your experience started so badly... :(
I'll tell you on Part Two our own bad experience: it was at a famous brewery...

indicaspecies said...

Pictures may not be of highest quality but they are good and the place seems beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your Easter wishes Gil and I reciprocate the same albeit belatedly. You know the reason why, as I just about returned from yet another trip. :)

Anonymous said...

Celine,
You're so lucky! Petra! I'm so envious... ;))
Prague is great, though it doesn't show!

MumbaiiteAnu said...

Your photos show that it is a beautiful city.

Anonymous said...

Anu,
Thanks! It's truly a lovely city...

Dorothée said...

Bonjour GlobTrotter,
Mon mari me demandait hier soir où j’aimerais aller pour nos prochaines vacances et ma réponse fut : L’Europe et Prague serait en haut de ma liste. Mais au prix de l'Euro!!!!! Outch!
Bref, à chacune de mes visites sur votre blog, je rêve en découvrant toutes vos belles photos. J’aime beaucoup la vue sur la ville et ses toits pointus rouges, ainsi que que celle sur le Charles Bridge. Et encore le canal Cestovka. Tout est beau !

Anonymous said...

Dorothée,
Merci pour la visite et le commentaire. Europe est certainement un bon choix pour les vacances et Prague est vraiment magnifique. L'euro, bon il semble que je devrais profiter pour partir aux États-Unis... ;))

Raghu Ram Prasad said...

CANAL CESTOVKA is a very good place to enjoy.thanks for comments and i am out of blog world during these days.keep in touch.

Anonymous said...

Raghu,
Thanks! Take your time!

CIELO said...

Ahhhh, those pictures made me wanna travel again.... I love European countries... but, oh, how nice to come back home to the USA... :) thanks for vising my house in the roses...

Have a great day

cielo

alicesg said...

Oh, I would love to go on a Europe tour now after seeing so many beautiful places from your blog. Your old photos are well kept, I could not scan some of my old travel photos, they were too dark to post in my blogs. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Cielo,
It's always «Home, sweet home...»
Thanks for dropping by!

Alice sg,
The A-380 is already flying from Singapore to Europe since March 18, 2008... ;)) Start booking!

Raghu Ram Prasad said...

CITY OF A HUNDRED SPIRES is very nice place to visit and your picture photo technology is very good...

Anonymous said...

Raghu,
Prague is a wonderful place! These pictures are predigital, scanned from paper; nothing special...

roentare said...

Some amazing images from the travel and local custom. Always a fan of these surroundings

Anonymous said...

Roentarre,
You have good reasons to be a fan of Prague!

david santos said...

Great posting.
Very, very good.
I wish you many blessigs, love and happiness

Anonymous said...

David,
Obrigado!

Emery Roth said...

Thank you for returning me to Prague. Here I took real, still photos, not video. Did you get out to the cemetery where all the artists are buried to see the graves of Smetana and Dvorak? Lovely photos!

Trotter said...

Ted,
I was still in the video side; so the photos are scarce and not a great achievement... ;)
The Vysehrad cemetery is truly interesting!!