Prague 2

On our second full day, we went to the Jewish Museum, which is not one building, but rather a number of synagogues, a hall for ceremonies and a Jewish cemetery.  The area was the Jewish ghetto for about 800 years, until Joseph II gave them civil rights and the wealthier people moved out. The synagogues display objects, with a theme for each synagogue. It’s really well done – the Ceremonial Hall has a series of maybe fifteen large paintings, dating from the late eighteenth century, acting as a sort of strip cartoon explanation of Jewish burial societies and practices. It may sound odd, but it was a fascinating look at a vanished world.

The most moving was the Pinkas synagogue, built in 1535 but largely destroyed in 1941. It has been reroofed and the walls are entirely covered with the names and dates of birth and death of around 80,000 Czech Jews who were murdered during the holocaust. It needs something like that to bring the numbers home to you; you simply can’t comprehend  80,000 without some visual representation. There are also drawings made by children in Terezin, sometimes with photos of the children, which are terribly moving.

The Jewish cemetery is the famous site, and certainly should be seen, but isn’t that surprising to anyone who has seen the City of London church graveyards. Or even Haworth. No wonder the Brontes had short lives, living next to a graveyard so full of corpses that the ground level is feet higher than the surrounding area.

Jewish cemetery

The synagogues were all heated, and Phil commented that it was ironic - he had to keep on his beanie, whereas yesterday in the churches he had to take it off, and they were bone chillingly cold, much colder than out doors. Still, at least he had better manners than a lot of the male visitors, who couldn’t be bothered to show a bit of basic politeness.

Afterwards, we went to St Agnes’ Convent. It’s Gothic, but very much restored – well, in fact it was a complete ruin. St Agnes was the sister of an early ruler, in about the eleventh century. It has a terrific exhibition of early Czech religious painting and sculpture. It was very sophisticated, and looked towards the Netherlands, France and Italy rather than eastwards. There was a brilliant set of paintings for an altarpiece from the fifteenth century, I’d definitely take those home.

Then we  had a gluhwein and some potato crisps in the old town square, and got changed for the opera again. We had an early meal in a vegetarian place – Czech cuisine is a bit heavy on the meat and light on the vegetables, and one begins to feel a little stuffed.

Gate at the end of the Charles Bridge

The opera this time was Tosca. There are surtitles in English and Czech, not that we need them desperately for either of the operas we saw; but when we went to see Fidelio, which we didn’t know at all, in Budapest, it was sung in German with surtitles in Hungarian; which I have to say was something of a challenge.  Anyway, Tosca was really good; excellent singers, and a well acted Scarpia. Tosca was pretty wooden, I’m afraid.

Almost all of the people we’ve dealt with are able to speak English, and English immersion schools are advertised. I suppose Czech is like Dutch, a relatively minority language, so you need a second one. Everyone seems instantly able to identify us as British, it’s a bit unnerving. Except for the lady who said “Dos vidanya” to Phil. I think he must have looked offended, because she followed it immediately with a “Sorry!”  It really bothered him. He wondered if he could really look like an oligarch. I pointed out that I was the let down – if he was a well off Russian, I’d be wearing a fur coat, masses of jewellery and be at least thirty years younger.

We had a bit longer to have a look at Wenceslas Square and saw the Jan Palach memorial at the end. I really like Prague. The painted buildings, arcades and narrow alleys in the Old Town are charming and the site is terrific. There are many interesting Art Deco buildings too, and lots of pedestrian only bits, which makes it thoroughly pleasant to wander round.

We tried to visit the Bethlehem chapel, where Jan Hus preached, but it was closed. It was open every other day in February, so we really had managed to pick a bad day.

The third full day in Prague, we took the metro to the Vysehrad fortress.  It’s the original castle, high up on a bluff over the river, on the other side to the present castle. As it was the fortress and palace of the early medieval kings of Bohemia, it has a mystical significance for Czechs. I wanted to go because “Vysehrad” is one of the movements of Ma Vlast.  However, it was a highlight of the trip, and we both really enjoyed it. 

Massive gate into the fort at Vysehrad

View from Vysehrad

Virtually all the medieval stuff  has been destroyed, but it was turned into an enormous artillery fort in the eighteenth century, and it’s now a lovely park, with lots of interesting features. The National cemetery is there and we found the graves of Smetana himself, Dvorak and Suk. I was quite excited. 

Smetana's grave

It was a glorious day, frosty to start with but brilliantly sunny, and spring like, with birds and flowers. We even saw a woodpecker up quite close.

The views of Prague and the river were spectacular, and the café did us a typically powerful coffee.

View from Vysehrad, St Vitus' cathedral and the castle in the distance.

We walked down off the bluff and got a tram to the Veletrzni Palac. This is where the National Gallery displays its collection from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty first centuries. They own a fabulous collection of impressionists and later French art, including some striking sculptures by Bourdelle. There are more Picassos than in Malaga. I’m having Van Gogh’s “Green Wheat”. It was painted when he was in the asylum in St Remy, but apparently on a good day, as it’s calm and peaceful, as you can imagine by the main colour being green. Phil wanted it too, but I beat him to it. He chose a Monet instead.

There’s a very comprehensive collection of Czech art, and design works are also shown, with models and plans of modernist buildings from the twenties and thirties. It just shows how forward thinking the Czech independent state was; and in fact the Veletrzni  Palac itself is a superb modernist building, designed for a trade fair in the thirties.

The last night here, we went to a concert in the Municipal House. The concert was good (the Prague Symphony Orchestra and Valentina Lisitsa) and the municipal house is just brilliant. It’s the most amazing Art Deco extravaganza you can imagine, beautifully restored.  If you ever go to Prague, don’t miss it – there are restaurants, so you don’t have to go to a concert. It’s better than the astronomical clock, I’m telling you. And a glass of prosecco only sets you back a quid.