Farmers Market, Dancing House, Anthropoid Memorial, Cafe Savoy and More!!

Wednesday April 5 was a mix of sun and cloud.  It was still cool, but pleasant for walking.  High about 13C.  We started our day by going to the Farmer's Market in the Jiriho z Podebrad square about five minutes from our apartment.  The Market is open Wednesday- Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.  We went at about 10:30.  Lots of vegetable and bakery vendors, one excellent fish vendor and a number of meat vendors.  There is coffee by Kavovy Klub and a few vendors selling hot food.  We bought some fish, vegetables and some treats, and had a coffee.

Busy market scene

Lots of bread

Veg- lots of potatoes, cabbage, onions- nary a tomato

Treats

Getting a coffee

The fish guy with beautifully displayed fish

We went back to the apartment with the food and I finished Tuesday's blog.  We headed out after an early lunch to go to the Charles Bridge, which Alain had never seen.  Our host had circled a number of items to see --- we inadvertently walked to another bridge further south of the Charles Bridge, but ended up discovering a number of interesting sites.

Our neighbourhood, Vinohrady, as well as many other areas in Prague have an amazing collection of art nouveau buildings.   Those Habsburgs knew how to build.  So much of Prague reminds us of Vienna.  So many buildings to take pictures of.

Lots of statues of workers

Three buildings in a row

The details 

Colours too

Lots of pastels

Wrought iron

Lovely art nouveau figures

Winged figures

We walked all the way to the Jiraskuv Bridge and bumped into the Dancing House or Fred and Ginger, the nickname given to the Dutch insurance company ING Bank building.  It was designed by Vlado Milunic (Croatian-Czech architect) and Toronto's own Frank Gehry on a vacant riverfront plot.  The site was the location of a house destroyed by the US bombing of Prague in 1945.  The ING bank was able to offer almost unlimited funding for the project.  The building has two parts, static and dynamic ("yin" and "yang") which were to symbolize the transition of Czechoslovakia from a communist regime to a parliamentary democracy.

The building was designed in 1992 and completed in 1996.  Then president Vaclav Havel lived for decades next to the site.  Milunic who had conceived an idea for a project at the place, had discussed it with his neighbour, the then little-known dissident Havel.  Once Havel became President, the idea of developing the site grew.  Havel was hoping for it to become a cultural centre, but this did not happen.  Rather, ING Bank agreed to sponsor the building of a house on the site.  The Bank chose Milunic as the lead designer but asked him to partner with another world-renowned architect.  It ended up being Gehry.  Gehry had originally named the house Fred and Ginger as it resembles a pair of dancers-- the nickname is now rarely used (except for the bar at the top of the building) and Gehry later moved away from using that nickname.

Dancing House

Another view

There is a gallery in the building but it was closed as there was no installation at the present time.  One could go to the top floor where there was a bar, but one needed to buy a drink to sit outside.  It was a bit chilly, and we had lots to do, so we took a picture of the interesting chandelier and then some pictures of the building.

Inside part of the bar with chandelier

After visiting the Dancing House, I checked my guidebook to see what else was in the area.  It turned out we were minutes from the National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror.  Interestingly, both Alain and I had watched the recent film Anthropoid about the may 1942 assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, on our flight from Paris to Toronto last November.

Briefly- in 1941, SS General Reinhard Heydrich was appointed by Hitler as Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia.  He cracked down on the Czech resistance with a vengeance.  In order to support the resistance, Britain secretly trained a team of Czechoslovak paratroopers to assassinate Heydrich.  The mission was code-named 'Operation Anthropoid'.  After a series of mishaps, two paratroopers Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik attacked Heydrich in his car on May 27, 1942.  He died a few days later from his wounds.  The two men and five of their associates fled and eventually found refuge in the Church of Sts Cyril & Methodius.  They were betrayed by Karel Curda, another paratrooper from one of the resistance groups, who had fled to his mothers home in South Bohemia.  He went to the Nazis with the information about the operation and those who had assisted the paratroopers.   He was executed for treason after the war.

All seven of the paratroopers died in the ensuing siege that took place on June 18, 1942.  The Nazis reacted with a wave of terror, which included the annihilation of two entire Czech villages, Lezaky and Lidice.

The Memorial located in a section of the Church tells the story through pictures and text.  One can also enter the crypt where a number of the men hid.  In the crypt are seven busts of each man killed in the Church and their story.  A fascinating piece of history that we had read about for years had come to life.

Outside of Sts Cyril and Methodius (original Baroque church built 1730-36)

Bullet holes in side of Church

Heydrich in the middle

The display was a series of panels with text and pictures tracing the history from the Munich Agreement in 1938, the planning of Anthropoid, and the aftermath of the assassination in 1942.  There were many pictures of those who had assisted the paratroopers before and after the assassination, nearly all who were later murdered by the Nazis or who committed suicide.  Most were deported and killed in the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik in Great Britain

Helpers later murdered

Families where the paratroopers had stayed were murdered

The doctor who treated the wounded Kubis after the attack on Heydrich committed suicide before capture

The fates of Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik

The door to the crypt was a steel prism shape.  The text explains the rationale for the design.

The crypt

Stairs leading up from the crypt 

Jan Kubis

Josef Gabcik

We were the only people in the crypt part of the Memorial, and for a moment had trouble figuring out how to open the door to get out.  One definitely got the sense of the conditions the men were living in the crypt before the Nazis attacked.  Three of the seven men in the Church fought the Germans from the choir area; the remaining four were in the Crypt.  When they ran out of ammunition, some committed suicide.  By the time the Germans got inside the chruch, five of the paratroopers were dead and two others died on the way to the hospital

A number of Church representatives who had assisted the paratroopers were put on trial and later executed.  The Nazis abolished the Orthodox Church as of September 1942.

The entrance to the crypt

Door to the Church

Entrance to the Memorial- opened in 1995

Inside of Church (it was not open, but one could take a photo through a glass wall)

What an amazing piece of history.  We then crossed the river and continued our walk.

Crossing the river

We were in another neighbourhood with more beautiful buildings.

More colour and detail

Paintings on sides of building

We passed Jazz Dock, one of a number of very good Jazz clubs in Prague which feature local and international artists.

Figues on Jazz Dock

Another view of Jazz Dock

We realized we were near a couple of third-wave coffee shops we had read about.  Alain had a coffee at Kofarna Cafe, which really reminded us of some of the coffee shops we had visited in London last year.

Lovely interior of Kofarna Cafe- good coffee too

We then went a few streets over to Cafe Lounge- a larger, fancier place that also served wine.  We both had excellent espressos.

Front of Cafe Lounge- making our coffees

In the streets are a number of plaques honouring people killed during the war.

Our next stop was Cafe Savoy, which came highly recommended.  It had opened in 1893, and was a meeting place for aristocrats and artists as it was central to a number of neighbourhoods.  It has a Neo-Renaissance ceiling.  During the First World War, the Cafe was changed into small shops; the then owner covered the ornate ceiling.  The ceiling managed to survive both wars.  Today the ceiling is exposed and  Cafe Savoy is a wonderful place for a coffee, drink or food.  They even have a small patisserie in the Cafe.  Alain and I both had different soups, which were delicious.

Outside the Cafe Savoy

Room with wine and ceiling

Pouring Alain's chicken soup (just what the doctor ordered for his cold)

When I went downstairs- I took this picture of the kitchen-- preparing pastry for the gorgeous apple strudel

In the front entrance- croissants and fresh strudel

We continued our walk, taking pictures of the river as we went.

Charles bridge coming up

We passed an art gallery with some of the "Babies" that are found on the TV tower near our apartment.

Alain and one of the babies

Entrance to Charles Bridge

It was time to walk across the Charles Bridge.

Vivid sculptures on the bridge

Castle in the distance

View

Beautiful buildings line the river side

One has to rub the dog for good luck

Nearing the end of our crossing

Music on the bridge

Crowd at square at the Old Town side of the Bridge

More buildings

Stunning

We walked back to the apartment, arriving at about 8:00 p.m.  We had a fish dinner with some Czech beer that our host had left in the fridge for us.   A terrific day, full of surprises.