Meerkat
December 9th, 2007, 09:23 AM
Last week i visited Prague, the capital of the Czech republic, population 1.2 million. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague
If anyone gets the chance to vitist, its well worth the trip - its a beautiful city, and has now taken over from Budapest as my favourite east European city.
As i only had a couple of days, i had to cram in as much as possible, but as Prague is quite small its easy to get around quickly on foot.
I started off by visiting Wenceslas square, a bit uninspiring, very similar to Londons Oxford street (only wider and with less traffric). Next i went to the old town square, which is home to the astronomical clock, created in 1490 by Master Hanus - apparently blinded so that he couldn't replicate the clock elsewhere (1st picture). The architecture in this part of the city is beautiful, and the nest 4 pictures give a taste of the type of buildings here.
Next i went to the old Jewish ghetto, as i've always had a fascination for Jewish hi9story and culture. A ticket can get access to several old syanagogues aqnd the old Jewish cemetary (picture 6), which dates from the 15th century and holds around 100,000 bodies - in an area about half the size of a soccer pitch. Adjacent to the cemetary is th Pinkas synagogue, which has inscribed on its walls the names, dates of birth and death of nearly 80,000 Czech jews murdered in world was 2. Picture 7 is the old Jewish town hall, and picture 8 is Mailsal syanagogue.
After exploring the ghetto i returned to the old town square, and took a few pictures of the church of our lady of Tyn (picture 9), which dominates the skyline of this part of the city, but unfortunately isn't open to the public. Then as it waas starting to get dark i rushed down to have a look at Charles Bridge (picture 10), which spans the Vlatva river. It was comissioned by emperor Charles IV in 1357 and completed in 1400.
If anyone gets the chance to vitist, its well worth the trip - its a beautiful city, and has now taken over from Budapest as my favourite east European city.
As i only had a couple of days, i had to cram in as much as possible, but as Prague is quite small its easy to get around quickly on foot.
I started off by visiting Wenceslas square, a bit uninspiring, very similar to Londons Oxford street (only wider and with less traffric). Next i went to the old town square, which is home to the astronomical clock, created in 1490 by Master Hanus - apparently blinded so that he couldn't replicate the clock elsewhere (1st picture). The architecture in this part of the city is beautiful, and the nest 4 pictures give a taste of the type of buildings here.
Next i went to the old Jewish ghetto, as i've always had a fascination for Jewish hi9story and culture. A ticket can get access to several old syanagogues aqnd the old Jewish cemetary (picture 6), which dates from the 15th century and holds around 100,000 bodies - in an area about half the size of a soccer pitch. Adjacent to the cemetary is th Pinkas synagogue, which has inscribed on its walls the names, dates of birth and death of nearly 80,000 Czech jews murdered in world was 2. Picture 7 is the old Jewish town hall, and picture 8 is Mailsal syanagogue.
After exploring the ghetto i returned to the old town square, and took a few pictures of the church of our lady of Tyn (picture 9), which dominates the skyline of this part of the city, but unfortunately isn't open to the public. Then as it waas starting to get dark i rushed down to have a look at Charles Bridge (picture 10), which spans the Vlatva river. It was comissioned by emperor Charles IV in 1357 and completed in 1400.