Touring Prague and Jazz

Tuesday April 4, was a cloudy, cool day with a high of only about 13C.  It had rained overnight but luckily stayed clear for the entire day.  We had about an hour walk to the Old Town Square, the meeting place for Sandemans Free tour.

We passed lots of interesting buildings en route

Lots of great statues adorn buildings

Very detailed

Lots of ornate buildings- many in Art Nouveau style

Beautiful churches

One of the decorated houses in the Old Town square

We took some pictures of the famous Astronomical Clock, which we returned to later with Terry, our Guide from the Free Tour.  There were about 20 people on the Free Tour from all over the world.  Terry, our guide, was excellent.  The tour lasted about three hours, with a 30 minute rest stop.

The astronomical clock was built in 1410 by Mikulas of Kadan who worked with Jan Sindel, a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Charles University.  It was a scientific feat in its day.  Later, around 1490 the calendar dial was added and it was decorated with other sculptures.  The clock is located on the southern wall of the Old Town Hall in the Old Town Square.

Astronomical Clock 

The four figures at the top of the clock represent four things that were despised at the time of the making of the clock. Vanity (with the mirror), Greed (with a money bag), Death (a skeleton), and Pagan Invasion (represented by a Turk).  The latter, our Guide pointed out, was a bit racist.  The four figures at the bottom are the Chronicler, Angel, Astronomer and Philosopher.  

Two set of figures.  There is a golden rooster right at the top.

We then looked at the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, a Gothic church which has been the main church of the Old Town since the 14th century.  Terry explained that the two towers are of different sizes in the Gothic structure.

Left side is narrower than right side

Truly beautiful church

We also stopped at Ladislav Saloun's brooding art nouveau statue of Jan Has, that was unveiled on July 6, 1915.  Jan Has (1369-1415) was a Czech priest, Master at Charles University, and considered the first church reformer, as he lived a century before Martin Luther.  He was burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.

Imposing sculpture of Jan Hus

Other buildings in the Old Town Square

We stopped at the Estates Theatre, which was built during the late 18th century.  It has a strong link to Mozart, who conducted the world premiere of his opera Don Giovanni there in 1787.  The scenes of Mozart in Prague in the film Amadeus were filmed at the Estates Theatre.

Estates Theatre

Statue of figure from Opera Don Giovanni in front of Estates Theatre

Terry, our guide, in front of Charles University

Another beautiful building

We stopped at the Powder Gate (so named as Gunpowder was stored there in the 17th century).  Powder Gate is a Gothic tower and one of the original 13 city gates and the only one remaining. Construction began in 1475.   It separates the Old Town from the New Town.

Powder Gate

Lots to photograph on the tour

On top of the National Bank building

We stopped to admire the National Theatre build between 1881-1883.

National theatre- gorgeous building 

More figures

We went inside an Art Nouveau building called Koruna.  It had a beautiful ceiling.

Ceiling inside Koruna

Outside of Art Nouveau building Koruna

We then went to Josefov, the old Jewish quarter.  Jews began living in Prague in the 10th century.  By the end of the 12th century they were forced into a walled ghetto that was locked at night.  The mid 16th to early 17th century is considered the golden age of Jewish history in Prague.  Emperor
Rudolf II (reigned 1576-1612) worked with Mayor Mordechai Maisel (1528-1601).  The community was led by noted philosopher and Talmudic scholar Rabbi Loew (1525-1609).  In 1848, Jews won the right to live where they wanted.  The ghetto's walls were torn down and the quarter was renamed Josefov (to honour Josef II, the Hapsburg Emperor.  Many Jews moved out of the old ghetto and the area fell into squalor.  At the end of the 19th century, the area was levelled and rebuilt in art nouveau splendour.  Prague's Jewish community was largely destroyed by the Nazis.

Our guide dealt with this history extremely well.  She said she was once asked if the synagogues in the area were new, as the questioner knew that many synagogues in Europe had been destroyed by the Nazi's.  The answer is that Hitler left the synagogues and cemeteries in Prague largely intact and brought artefacts from smaller Jewish communities to Prague to create a "museum of an extinct race."    
That is why the synagogues were not destroyed.

We will return for a visit to the Jewish Museum and other sites on Thursday.

Looking up at Jewish cemetery (many layers of bodies are in the cemetery )

Back of the Old-New Synagogue

Our last stop on the tour was a view of the Prague Castle from the other side of the river.  Terry ended her stories with the history of the 1989 velvet revolution.

Prague Castle

After the tour ended, we wandered some more--- the buildings are wonderful.

More Art Nouveau

Heavy lifting

We passed a memorial to Jews from one building who perished in WWII

We also passed a memorial to Ernst Mach, a physicist who studied shock waves.  The ratio of one's speed to that of sound is named the Mach number in his honour.

Memorial to Ernst Mach 

Building where Mach worked

We had time to visit the Old-New Synagogue.  We were able to buy a ticket that is good for one week to visit all the sites in the old Jewish quarter.  The Old-New Synagogue is the oldest landmark of the Jewish Town in Prague and one of the oldest surviving synagogues in Europe.  It was built in the last third of the 13th century by stonemasons from the royal workshop.  It was originally called the New or Great Shul, but after the establishments of other synagogues in the late 16th century, it became known as the Old-New Synagogue (Altneuschul in German).  There were many legends about the synagogue, one that had been told by our guide.  It is said that the attic of the synagogue is home to the remains of the Golem, the creature made of clay that was animated by Rabbi Loew (1825-1609) in order to protect the Prague Jewish community.

The front of the Old-New Synagogue

The Old-New Synagogue is the oldest surviving synagogue with a medieval double-nave.  There is a huge banner in the centre of the main room, which symbolized the important status of the Prague Jewish community.  In use since the late 15th century, the banner was restored to its present form by Emperor Charles VI in 1716.  The centre of the banner features the Star of David with a Jewish hat, which was the official symbol of the Prague Jewish community.  The Old-New Synagogue was always the main synagogue of Prague's Jewish community and is still used for services today.   In 1939, there were approximately 92,000 Jews in Prague (about 20% of the city's population). Today, the Jewish population of Prague is about 5000. 

Double nave interior

Banner with Star of David and hat

The bimah

Hallway-- medieval 

We wanted to go back to a cubist building and exhibit that we had passed on the Free Tour.  The House at the Black Madonna was the first Cubist structure in Prague and was built as a department store in 1911-1912.  It was designed by Josef Gocar.  A copy of a Baroque statuette of the Black Madonna from the original store adorns the corner of the building, giving it its name.  There is a permanent exhibit of the Museum of Decorative Arts on Czech cubism on the second and third floor of the building.  It was a wonderful display of fine art, furnishings, objects and architecture by Czech cubism's key exponents, including architects, designers and painters.

Outside of the House of the Black Madonna

Poster on main floor beside small shop where one purchased tickets

The exhibit was beautifully laid out with good information.  Czech cubism emerged from 1911-14 and made Prague a key location for the avant-garde movement.  One of its initial proponents was Emile Filla (1882-1953), a Czech painter who was a follower of Picasso and an early Cubist painter.

Emil Filla - Bathing 1912

Pavel Janak (1882-1956) Chest of drawers 1911-12 (designed for a district attorney)

Josef Gocar (1890-1945) 1912- furniture designed for an ophthalmologist

Josef Chochol (1880-56) 1910-11- furniture designed for English Club Prague

Pavel Janak-  chair for historian Josef Borovicka- 1911-12

Josef Gocar- furniture for actor Otto Boleska - 1910-11

Desk from furniture set

Josef Gocar (1890-1945)  Swimmer 1914

There was a small area where one could sit on a replica of a cubist chair.

Alain sitting on a replica chair

This was a replica of a chair  that one could sit on

Fabulous cubism style stairway

There was also a larger store in the building with wonderful cubism ceramics and furniture.

Display at store

We left the cubism exhibit, wandered around a bit more and stopped at a tourist office.  Prague has a large number of tourist centres that are very well run and have brochures for everything going on in the city.  Alain happened to see a small flyer for a jazz concert by The Patricia Barber Trio at a small theatre location.  We got tickets and then decided to go for a coffee and a snack at the Grand Cafe Orient on the first floor of the cubist museum.  It is Prague's only cubist cafe, designed by Josef Gocar in 1912.  It was restored and reopened in 2005, having been closed since the 1920s.  Everything in the cafe, including the lampshades and coat hooks are styled in the cubist style.  We had a coffee and shared a sandwich.  Fabulous spot and very relaxing.

Grand Cafe Orient- lampshades are amazing

View of the Grand Cafe Orient

We walked the way we had come from the apartment to go see The Patricia Barber Trio at an older small community theatre on a quiet street.  The show started at 7:30 p.m.  It was an intimate setting and we were just three rows from the stage (general seating).  Her appearance was part of a Jazz Meets World series.  There were about 200 people there, clearly jazz fans. Very few foreigners were there, nearly all locals.  When I had been in Prague in 1996, I saw Mike Stern at an old auditorium.  I am sure some of the people in the audience for that show were at the Patricia Barber show.   Alain and I have always like Patricia Barber, and usually miss her when we are in Chicago, where she is from and has a regular gig.   It was a great 1 1/2 hour set.  She is a great pianist and singer and does a mix of standards and her own compositions.

Poster for event on the stage

Patricia Barber

Drummer Nate Friedman

Bassist Patrick Mulcahy

After the show, we walked back to our neighbourhood and went for a late dinner at U Vodoucha, a local pub recommended by our hosts.  It was a wonderful old traditional tavern, with folks mainly drinking beer (the beer in the Czech Republic is the best).  People eat earlier than they do in southern Europe.

Outside of U Vodoucha

Alain at the pub (he still has a bad cold)

I had chicken in a potato pancake and very good sauerkraut

Alain had potato gnocchi and vegetables and cheese (not like the Italian version, but very tasty)

We were only a few minutes from the apartment.  We were both very tired from our first day exploring Prague.  There is a lot to see and do.  The blog would have to wait until Wednesday.  We both had over 25,000 steps for the day!