2024 Oct 8 Tuesday

Prague

Our next-to-the-last day with lots to cover. We wanted to visit museums to learn more about Franz Kafka (literature) and Alfons Mucha (art). We also hoped to get to the Jewish Quarter, and then there are always things to see on the way.

12:18 pm to 7:04 pm. 5.57 miles, 15,244 steps, elevation +267 feet. Temperature 67 degrees; a beautiful mostly-sunny day.

Richard’s Relive video is here: https://www.relive.cc/view/vKv2g2G9p4O 

Every time we pass this Knights Templar Church near the Chain Bridge, we check to see if it is open. Finally we were in luck, even if the caretaker was nervously awaiting all of us to leave so he could lock up. Just a few quick pictures of the Church of Our Lady under the Chain.
The Lennon Wall started in the 1980s with the theme of peace and love, but has sadly been turned into a graffiti wall.
This mill wheel has a supervising gremlin. For a nearby restaurant and tourists, it’s a photo shoot.

The Franz Kafka Museum covers his life and his writings. He was a complicated thinker from an early age, and had troubling relationships with his father and several women. He was educated as a lawyer, was a successful insurance man promoted to accident prevention, but his love was writing. He patronized bars where writers met, and was introduced to theatre and reintroduced to Jewish culture with some of the groups he followed. He yearned for family but broke off several engagements and never married. He died in 1924 of tuberculosis.

Kafka’s Complete Works was not published due to the coup of 1948. The start of the Communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia represented 40 years of prohibition and political censure for Kafka’s work and all essays written about it.

In 1963, the Kafka congress in Liblice began the progressive release from prohibition of Kafka’s work. Kafka started to be read, commented on, adapted and performed, to become one of the spiritual fathers of the Prague Spring 1968. Yet for the following two decades, he once again became a politically undesirable character, his work was forbidden, and Czech Kafka scholars were persecuted by the police.

The Velvet Revolution of 1989 saw Kafka reunited with Czech culture. The writer could not have imagined how right he was with his prophesies about the future of his city.

The Savoy was a hangout spot for the Jewish theatre crowd including Franz Kafka. Today it looks quite similar, and is a nice restaurant.
This is billed as the narrowest alleyway, the last fire lane in Prague. In the Middle Ages, the passage served as an access corridor to the river. It measures 70 cm at its narrowest point, and traffic has been monitored by a red/green light since 1992.
More art. These two sculptures were near each other, but I found no explanation.
More statues holding up buildings.
Heading into the Jewish Quarter, we found this reminder to bring home the Jewish prisoners in Gaza. It is one day after the anniversary of the October 7 massacre.
We visited the Maisel Synagogue which now seemed mostly a museum.
This statue of Rabbi Lowe graces the corner of the New Town Hall. As described in the Maisel Synagogue, It depicts a young girl holding out a rose to the rabbi whose scent brings about his end. It was a symbol of the demise of Prague’s Jewish town. The statue was first placed in 1914, but was removed in 1940 during the war years.
The exterior of the Maisel Synagogue.
Another embellished building near Old Town Square.
We wanted to visit the Tyne Church but it had been closed until Tuesday. While the twin spires are impressive, the church is nestled behind and is difficult to get into. Once inside, we are kept behind gates, far from the church proper.
Another architectural detail.
Off to the Mucha Museum to learn more about his art nouveau style. This is his single most famous work, an advertisement to sell cigarette papers. The exotic tendrils of her hair conjure up the whorls of smoke from the idle cigarette.
This advertisement pushes the highly refined and chic image of a biscuit company. It features an elegant, stylish set of people enjoying the fine confection, thereby lending not only a stamp of quality but one of taste.
This shy maiden is enraptured with the tranquility of Monte Carlo. His client was a railroad, and the design may have suggested tracks and wheels to transport the public to Monte-Carlo.
Mucha came to the US in 1904 and received tributes, thanks chiefly to his work publicizing actress Sarah Bernhardt. This New York Daily News cover, drawn by Mucha, is called Friendship, and depicts two countries as women. America, the younger one, is in a dress adorned by stars. France, the older and wiser one, wears a dress with a pattern of lily blossoms.
This is a design for a stained glass window in St. Vitus Cathedral.
The poster for Princess Hyacinth promotes the pantomime ballet of the same name.
This character, Slavia, is a heritage symbol like Uncle Sam to Americans. This was one of Mucha’s favorite designs and he used it again on the Czech 100 crowns note issued in 1920, and the St. Vitus stained glass window.
Another building with exceptional details.
This sculpture of Franz Kafka’s head graces the entrance to a shopping area.
Walking home, we came across this male version of Mary Poppins (my description only). I found no explanation from the artist.
This building is usually called the dancing building as it reminds some of Fred Astaire dancing with his partner, Ginger Rogers.
Another nighttime view of the castle hill and St. Vitus Cathedral.
City lights reflect on the river. One more day tomorrow in this beautiful city.

4 Responses

  1. I’m glad you were able to enter the Knights Templar church today. The Knights Templar have always fascinated me, but I don’t remember everything I learned about them – except for the Friday the 13th thing. I’ll have to do some catch up reading about them.
    Prague certainly has very interesting building architecture! Seeing them makes the buildings in our cities look….boring….
    Even though you sound like you’re not quite ready to leave Prague, I am very much looking forward to seeing you both back home…besides….there’s always next year…

    1. I was so happy to finally get into the Knights Templar church, and I agree that there are fascinating stories about them. Nothing can match the castle in Tomar, Portugal, but it is interesting to see how they were protectors everywhere they went. Even the name of the church, Our Lady Under the Chain [Bridge], explains some of the reason for being there–the Chain Bridge was one of the major links between the sides of the river. Prague has wonderful architecture, and certainly art everywhere. I wish we could have stayed longer.

  2. Don’t you love all the sculptures you are seeing? Think it is one of the features that really stands out in Prague. Glad you got to the Mucha Museum. Rather unique.
    Dan

    1. In addition to sculptures, I loved all the variety of art everywhere. Such a wonderful city. I really wanted to see the Mucha Museum because i love that art style, but he certainly has influenced many others and I loved seeing it all, especially the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul where the artwork was so influenced by Mucha. Spectacular. It was such a shame that he was arrested in 1939 and although he was released soon afterwards, it destroyed his health and he died very soon. I wonder what more he would have contributed had he lived.