Prager Spaziergänge - Charles Bridge and the Old Town

Charles Bridge is one of Prague's most visited monuments. Built in the 14th century, it connects Prague's Mala Strana (or Kleinseite) and the Castle with the old town and the city hall. The bridge is for pedestrians only, and usually crowded with tourists, souvenir stands, musicians and other artists offering to do your portrait etc. 

Entrance to the bridge

Holy St. John of Nepomuk.  a local saint, on Charles Bridge with the castle and St. Vitus Cathedral in the background 

One of the towers of Charles Bridge in front of the dome of St. Nicholas Church

sculptures on the bridge

many bridges

On the Mala Strana side is a small peninsula called Kampa or little Venice: 

with an interesting Museum of Modern Art

Franz Kafka

Charles IV., King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor (1316-1378)

Crossing the bridge leads us towards the old town and the city hall with its famous astronomical clock. 

The four figures to the left and right of the astronomical clock represent vanity, greed, death and pleasure. On the hour, two little doors above the clock open and the twelve apostles look out and march past . All the while death pulls the string with the moving of the clock. The lower dial is a calendar representation.

View towards the Old City Hall and the Old Town Square (Altstädter Platz)

a smoking angel 

Outdoors music is everywhere -   

a little further on into the New Town , we find the beautiful State Opera House. 

Prager Spaziergänge - Mala Strana

Prague is a very pretty town, very historic, very European. It looks like a small Vienna or Paris, just everything a little quainter, prettier and less stately, with a southern touch and squares surrounded by arcades like in northern Italy. The large historic city center of Prague on both banks of the river Moldau is a Unesco World Cultural Heritage Site. 

Mala Strana (also: Lesser Town or Kleinseite) is the area between the castle hill and the river Moldau. Visitors walk through this pretty area when coming down from the castle heading towards the old town and Charles Bridge across the Moldau. 

St Nicholas Church 

Continuing the walk, below the Castle in Mala Strana is Palais Waldstein (also called: Wallenstein Palace), which I visited because I wanted to know who Beethoven's energetic lively "Waldstein"-Sonata, one of my favourites, was dedicated to. Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein lived in Bonn for some time when Beethoven lived there, but that was nearly two hundred years after this baroque palace was built, by Count Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Waldstein. This Count was actually Wallenstein - very confusing -, the famous commander of the Habsburg army during the Thirty-year-War. The Waldsteins (or Wallensteins) are an old Bohemian aristocratic family and owned the palace until 1945. 

The park is very well kept and has an artifical dripstone wall and a birds' volière with a group of eagle owls and freely strutting peacocks. 

eagle owls (Bubo bubo)

The artificial dripstone wall was created as part of the original garden in 1623 to 1629. Artifical grottos must have been en vogue as a garden design feature for a very long time. I remember the beautiful gardens of Villa Melzi on Lake Como, where the albeit much smaller grotto was built between 1808 and 1810. 

Today the castle holds the meeting halls of the Senate of the Czech Republic.

Senate Hall 

Bohemian crystal chandeliers

Albrecht Graf Waldstein or "Wallenstein"

The park in Waldstein's Palais with a view to the Castle

(... to be cont'd ...)

Prager Spaziergänge - from Petrin to the Castle

Prague's backyard mountain, the "Petrin", can be easily reached by funicular railway. 

On top, you will find a beautiful rose garden with mostly modern roses and the local viewing platform in the shape of a small Eiffeltower.

  Downhill from there the path offers many beautiful views over the city.

A pleasant walk leads towards the Strahov Monastery with its famous library.

Strahov Monastery library

too many books to watch over, or why is he so unhappy? 

I had never seen a "Xylothek" - a tree library ... the books are prepared from bark and open to show other specific details of various species of trees. Each book is dedicated to one tree and its specifics. 

a bible from 1440 

A short walk from the monastery one finds the small Loreto Church with a colourful cloistered courtyard which contains a strange reconstruction of the presumed birth place of Jesus in Bethlehem. 

From there it is an easy stroll downhill towards the Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral with beautiful views towards the city.

The castle area goes back to the 9th century and is a cluster of churches, palaces and houses, the most dominant being St. Vitus Cathedral with the characteristic tower. 

St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Wenceslas' Chapel 

never finished ...

 The Presidential Palace covers a huge area (seen from Mala Strana).  

Changing of the guards in front of the Presidential Palace. Rumour goes, that Vaclav Havel designed the rather functional costumes himself - no bearskin hats here! 

Wenzel's Hall in the old Royal Palace

(... to be cont'd)