TELGEN VACATION REPORT
Prague, January 2000
Although
it seems as if we've travelled almost every other month since we got here in
July 1998, our list of places to see hasn't seemed to get any smaller. That's
why when David had a long weekend off school we decided to take a short weekend
trip to Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic and one of Europe's nine
"Cities of Culture 2000." Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Prague
has become a very popular spot with tourists, and it's easy to see why. At various
times in its 1000-plus years Prague has been the capital of Bohemia and of the
Holy Roman Empire, not to mention the center of its own periods of revival, and
there are buildings that survive from all these periods. This distinctive
Gothic building is the Church of Our Lady before Tyn, first begun in 1365. You
may be able to make out a golden circle in the middle and lower of the three
towers; that is a solid gold effigy of the Virgin Mary. The church is one of
two that cast their shadows over the Old Town Square, a lively spot where we
spent much of our weekend. This picture was taken from atop the tower of the
Old Town Hall ("Old Town" is one of the districts of the city), from
which one of the two famous defenestrations of Prague took place. ("Defenestration"
was our learning word for the trip, and we saw both sites where the politically
unfortunate were disposed of through windows.) Today the Old Town Square is one
of the tourist centers of the town; it's a pedestrian zone filled with shops and
cafes. It seemed as if one of every three storefronts was a change point; one
was a crystal/souvenir shop; and one was a restaurant or café. It's astonishing
when you imagine how different it must have been only 15 years ago, before the
Czechs were free of the Soviet influence.
Another
distinctive Prague landmark is the Charles Bridge, which was begun in 1357 by
Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor who made Prague his imperial residence and
who presided over a golden age in the city's history. Besides the bridge, he
built many churches and monasteries and founded the Carolinum, or Charles
University, which is one of the oldest in Europe. The tower which you can see
at the end was built at the end of the fourteenth century, and most of the
statues (mostly of saints) that line the sides of the bridges were added in the
early eighteenth century, although a couple date to the 1800s or even early
1900s. David found some pigeons there that he could chase, and thus I had yet
another photo for my future coffee-table book: "David Chases the Pigeons
of Europe." The bridge links the Old Town section of Prague with the
Little Quarter—a section much newer than the Old Town in that it was founded in
1257, while the Old Town dates back at least to the eleventh century. As it is
over 1,700 feet long and up until 1741 was the only bridge to cross the Vltava
River, it was often of strategic importance. It was almost destroyed by the
Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War (which actually did last 30 years,
1618-1648, and was begun during one of the aforementioned defenestrations), but
instead became the site where a truce was signed, thus saving this landmark.
Prague
is full of history from various eras, and all kinds of different buildings
survive because the city escaped relatively unscathed, bombing-wise, from World
War II. Prague has a rich Jewish tradition, and we spent a morning exploring
the Jewish Quarter, which has many buildings of considerable historical value.
This building here is the Old-New Synagogue, so called because it used to be
the "New Synagogue" until an even newer New Synagogue was built
nearby. So is it old or new, this synagogue? Well, it's the oldest surviving
synagogue in Europe, having been in continuous use since it was built around 1270.
It's not a very large building, as you can see, but is a living house of
worship that also contains historically significant elements. There is the
chair of Rabbi Löw, for instance, a famed scholar of the late sixteenth century
who is associated with the legend of the golem. Near this synagogue is a
complex that contains two other old synagogues, including one that has painted
a list of names and dates of all of Prague's 77,297 victims of the Holocaust on
its walls—a truly staggering vision. These buildings are situated by the Old
Jewish cemetery, which contains an estimated 100,000 people buried within it,
although the space is little larger than a single square city block. For over
300 years it was the only burial site available to Jews, and it is estimated that
people are buried up to 12 layers deep within. Over 12,000 gravestones are
crammed into this small space, and you can wend your way through one of two
paths through the stones. Standing in the middle of this space, which is so
small yet contains so much, one is struck yet again by the sheer weight of
history that can be experienced in Europe. Coming from a place where a 75-year-old
building is considered "historical," it is truly mind-bending to
stand somewhere that has existed for more than ten times as long. These places
exist all over, sometimes among everyday shops and houses, and we plan to turn
many more corners like these in Europe before our stay here is through.
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Copyright © 2000 by
Diane Telgen. All rights reserved.