Prague Travel: A Walking
Tour of Strahov Monastery and Prague’s Castle
Hill
At the end of my delicious lunch at La Rotonde,
the Art Deco restaurant at the Radisson Blu Alcron
Hotel, my personal tour guide for my walking tour
of Prague came to pick me up. Petra Bedlasova is
a historian, artist and photographer, and she is
also one of the expert guides for Prague Walks,
one of Prague’s most well-known tour guiding
companies.
The historic Lucerna shopping arcade
Just steps from the hotel we entered one of the
local landmarks just off Wenceslas Square: the Lucerna
Palace is a passage that connects Vodickova and
Štepánská streets, a true entertainment
complex that houses many retail stores, restaurants,
a movie theatre, a music bar and the prestigious
Lucerna Grand Hall, one of Prague’s most famous
concert halls. The complex was built between 1907
and 1921 and the first part of the arcade was opened
in 1907. Opened in 1909, the Lucerna Cinema was
the first permanent cinema in Bohemia, and held
the screening of the first talking movie in 1929.
Various Art Nouveau and Art Deco details adorn this
complex, and one of the most visually stunning details
is an upside down horse by Czech sculptor David
Cerný. It has been hanging from the building’s
glass-covered dome since 1999.
An upside-down horse hangs from the ceiling at the
Lucerna
We stepped out of the building on the west side
and continued through another passageway towards
a small public park called the “Franciscan
Gardens”, a secluded oasis in the middle of
the city which feature a rose garden where we stopped
to look at a very tall Gothic cathedral. Petra explained
we were looking at the Church of Our Lady of the
Snows. The church was planned in the 14th century
and was never completed, and at 34 metres, its vaulted
ceiling is the highest in Prague, even higher than
that of famous St. Vitus Cathedral. Exiting from
the rose garden we stepped into the church and I
was impressed by the enormous altar, at 29 metres
the highest in the city.
The Church of Our Lady of the Snows
Today this church is still the heart of a Franciscan
monastery, which opened in the 1990s after having
been shut down by the Communist regime in 1950.
A few steps further we went into the monastery,
and in one of the monastery’s arcaded walkways
an exhibition of sculptures was being set up. The
life-size sculptures were quirky depictions of human
scenes and I snapped a few pictures of them before
we got kicked out.
One of the quirky sculptures
Walking further west we stopped at the Palac Adria,
a stunning example of European Art Deco. Built originally
in 1923 and 1924 for a major insurance company,
its inside features a passage that connects two
major streets. The floor mosaics, the brass store
windows and doors, the brass chandeliers and the
wall sculptures are great samples of high Art Deco
architectural details. After being renovated in
1996 and 1997, the building today holds apartments,
offices, a theatre club, a gallery and a restaurant,
and the façade showcases the rondo-cubist
style.
Impressive Art Deco detailing at the Palac Adria
Since we were trying to explore Prague’s
famous Castle Hill, we now hopped into a streetcar
that started taking us past the National Theatre
across the Vltava River into the Mala Strana (Lesser
Town or Little Quarter) District and from here on
a curvy track up onto Castle Hill. Petra explained
that Prague Castle is the largest castle complex
in the world and covers more than 1100 years of
history.
Arcaded walkway on Prague's Castle Hill
Our first stop on the hill was Strahov Monastery,
which found its origins in a Romanesque stone monastery
for the Premonstratensian order in 1182. An earlier
building had been there since 1140 AD. Over the
centuries various reconstructions happened, and
today the monastery’s appearance is primarily
Baroque. The Basilica of Our Lady dates from the
second half of the 1700s and is an example of high
Baroque.
The baroque architecture of Strahov Monastery
Petra took me inside the complex to the Philosphical
Hall, a baroque library dating from 1782 which contains
more than 42,000 books covering the topics of astronomy,
history, philology, philosophy and mathematics.
A stunning ceiling fresco depicts the history of
mankind, allegorical images of philosophy and knowledge,
starting from Ancient Roman times. Further down
the corridor is the older Theological Hall, completed
in 1679, which contains more than 18,000 religious
books. At the end of the corridor is an optical
illusion: a trompe l’oil mural depicting a
deeper column-fringed portico.
The Philosophical Hall at Strahov Monastery
From the gardens on the eastern side of Strahov
Monastery we had a phenomenal view of the entire
City of Prague, with the Prague Castle complex to
the left, the Vltava River in the middle, and the
modern (in)famous television tower on the horizon,
a modern structure started during the Communist
regime and finished in the 1990s that is not much
beloved by the residents. On the right hand side
we were looking at Petrin Hill whose most well-known
landmark is a miniature version of the Eiffel Tower,
exactly one fifth the size of the real Eiffel Tower.
It opened in 1891, two years after the Eiffel Tower
in Paris. Looking over the city it was plainly obvious
why Prague enjoys the moniker “City of 100
Spires”.
Great view over Prague from Strahov Monastery
We strolled back over to Castle Hill and stopped
on the square behind Cernín Palace, the longest
Baroque building in Prague which now houses the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also served as SS
headquarters during World War II. On the east side
of the square is the Loreto, Prague’s most
renowned place of pilgrimage, completed in 1626
at the order of a Czech aristocrat who was eager
to promote the legend of the Santa Casa of Loreto,
said to be the house where the Archangel Gabriel
told Mary about the future birth of Jesus. The original
house was located in the town of Loreto in Italy,
but 50 replicas of the Loreto were built in Bohemia
and Moravia. The baroque bell tower of the Loreto
holds a carillon with 30 bells that were cast in
Amsterdam in 1691.
The Loreto
The Capuchin Monastery, founded in 1600, is located
on the north side of the square and still displays
some canon balls embedded in the façade.
From here we walked down the hill to Hradcany Square,
just outside the western gates of Prague Castle.
Several palaces and historic buildings surround
the square, including the Salmov Palace, the Schwarzenberg
Palace, the Carmelite Monastery, Hradcany Town Hall,
Tuscany Palace, Martinic Palace and Sternberg Palace.
The sgraffito facade of the Schwarzenberg Palace
The newly renovated Schwarzenberg Palace dates
from the late 1500s and features an amazing Renaissance-era
sgraffito façade. Columns remembering the
Black Plague adorn the centre of the square in front
of the main entrance to Prague Castle. Late 19th
century street lighting has been restored with historically
accurate gas lighting.
Authentic gas street lighting from the 19th century
At the entrance of Prague Castle we witnessed the
Changing of the Guards, an hourly ritual that attracts
large crowds of onlookers. Prague Castle is the
city’s number 1 tourist attraction and it
has magically survived countless fires, invasions
and even world wars. Founded around 860 AD, various
Czech dynasties occupied this expansive castle complex
that was reconstructed throughout the centuries.
The Romanesque style was introduced in the 13th
century, Gothic rebuilding took place under Charles
IV in the 13th century, and an enormous fire destroyed
a large portion of the complex in 1541.
Looking towards the entrance of Prague Castle
Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II introduced Renaissance
architecture to the castle in the late 16th century,
and Austrian Empress Maria Theresa initiated a rebuilding
in Baroque style in the second half of the 18th
century and gave the entire complex a unified appearance.
Since 1918 Prague Castle is also the official residence
of the president of the Republic. We passed through
two baroque courtyards to the front façade
of the St. Vitus Cathedral, the largest and most
important church in the Czech Republic. Saints,
kings and princes have been buried here, and the
kings of Bohemia were crowned here until 1836.
The Western facade of St. Vitus Cathedral
My expert guide Petra explained that St. Vitus
Cathedral was built in the Gothic style, and although
construction of this landmark began in 1344, it
was not finished until 1929. The western façade
of the towers indeed show many 20th century details
including images of the architects. Starting with
the founding of a small round church by St. Wenceslas
in the 9th century, St. Vitus is the third church
in this location and a strong symbol of Czech nationalism.
Upon entering the cathedral, Petra explained that
the eastern part of the cathedral is medieval while
the western part was completed in the 20th century.
To the untrained eye it is very difficult to discern
a difference, but the colourful stained glass windows
by Alfons Mucha are a magnificent example of early
20th century Art Nouveau. Czech artist Frantisek
Kysela designed the rose window on the Western front
between 1925 and 1927.
The Mucha Window of St. Vitus Cathedral
In a walk through the cathedral Petra pointed out
the tombs of Habsburg monarchs in the centre of
the cathedral’s medieval portion. Most of
the Habsburgs are buried in Vienna, but these family
tombs were an exception. A wooden carved map of
Prague shows the city’s layout in the early
17th century. It is possible to walk behind the
altar, past the Chapel of St. John the Baptist and
the Chapel of the Holy Relics. Petra pointed out
a bigger than lifesize sculpture of St. John of
Nepomuk which is made of solid silver. This saint
is also a national saint of the Czech Republic and
an important symbol of Czech Catholicism.
Silver sculpture of St. John Nepomuk
The masterpiece of the cathedral is the St. Wenceslas
Chapel, created in the 14th century by Charles IV
to honour St. Wenceslas, patron of the Czech lands.
The richly decorated chapel was built over the saint’s
grave and the colourful walls are covered by semi-precious
stones of Czech origin. The rest of the wall was
later covered with paintings of the legend of St.
Wendeslas.
The St. Wenceslas Chapel
Back outside the cathedral Petra showed me a fenced
off area underneath the cathedral that holds excavations
of two earlier churches: an early 10th century church
dedicated to St. Wenceslas, and a bigger church
from the 11th century. The third castle courtyard
that we were now standing in was constructed in
the late 18th century. Images outside the cathedral’s
Golden Portal, located on the south side, consist
of a mosaic depicting the last judgment. Mosaics
are rather atypical for a Central European church
as they can mostly be found on Italian and Byzantine
churches.
St. George's Basilica
From the third courtyard we walked downhill along
Jirska Street, past St. George’s Convent and
the Lobkowicz Palace and we exited the walled castle
compound on the east side where we witnessed another
Changing of the Guards ceremony. A lookout point
beside the fortification walls provided us with
an amazing panorama over the city and the vineyards
that stretch out along the southern flanks of Castle
Hill.
One of the guards at Prague Castle
From here we walked down the hill towards the Malostranska
subway station where we found a nice outdoor café
and capped off our walking tour with a drink and
a crepe. I thanked Petra sincerely for her time
and for sharing her knowledge of Prague with me
before we ended the tour around 6 pm.
My expert guide, Petra Bedlasova
Now by myself, I took a nice walk along the banks
for the Vltava River to the Ivanesuv Bridge from
where I had an excellent view south towards the
famous Charles Bridge.It felt like I was looking
at a postcard from this vantage point, which provided
a gorgeous panorama of the Charles Bridge and the
Old Town Bridge Tower.
What an amazing view of the Charles Bridge
I continued my stroll through the narrow cobble-stoned
streets of Mala Strana, the Lesser Town district
on the west side of the river and came across the
Franz Kafka Museum. It was now too late to go inside
the museum but I enjoyed the pleasant courtyard
and was most entranced by two sculptures of peeing
men with swiveling hips. The sculptures most definitely
had tourists puzzled and chuckling.
Peeing sculptures inside the courtyard of the Franz
Kafka Museum
On my walk back towards Wenceslas Square I strolled
past several Prague landmarks, including Old Town
Square, the Powder Tower and Municipal House. Once
arrived on Wenceslas Square I looked towards the
eastern end of the square. The Czech National Museum,
located on a hill, was overlooking this large public
space, tinged in beautiful dark orange from the
sunset. The normally grayish-brown building looked
as if it were glowing in dark shades of orange.
The National Museum in the orange glow of the setting
sun
I had a chance to snap a few pictures of the statue
of St. Wenceslas against a dramatic gray, purple
and orange sky, and filled with a long day of visual
impressions, I was ready to return to the Hotel
Jalta, my comfortable abode, for one more full day
of discoveries in Prague. As I was downloading my
hundreds of pictures of the day, I realized that
without a doubt the magic of Prague had enchanted
me and I was falling in love with this city.
