Walking tour of Prague, Day 1

After a great night’s sleep, we’re off to find some breakfast and start our walking tour of Prague. Right around the corner is a restaurant that is highly rated for breakfast so that’s stop number 1. Collette ordered scrambled eggs with goat cheese and toast, while I ordered Eggs Benedict. A small cup of decaf coffee for me and life is good.

Fully charged, it’s time to start walking. First thing we looked for is the Man Hanging Out sculpture. Took quite a while but we finally found it, right above our heads! Created by artist David Cerny, this bronze statue “hangs” from the roof of the building right next to our apartment. It’s supposed to be a resemblance of Sigmund Freud but it was a bit too far up to really tell. Apparently, this statue has been around the world starting in Stockholm Museum of Modern Art, then on to Grand Rapids, Michigan (What?), then on to Seoul. The moves were because people kept calling emergency services to report a suicide attempt.

The Man Hanging

According to the app, there are 38 stops on this tour and were starting towards the end, stop 35 which is close to the apartment. Our first stop is a small church, Bethlehem Chapel. Founded in 1391 by two donors, Jan Kriz and Hanus of Mihlheim, the chapel was only to be used for Czech sermons. In 1402, Master Jan Hus preached here. He was a famous philosopher, university professor and religious reformer. Maybe too much so because in 1415, Jan was condemned to beath by the stake for criticizing the Church. Don’t bite the hand… Later the Jesuits used the chapel as a Catholic Church.

Today the chapel is used by the Czech Technical University for graduations.

Bethlehem Chapel

Big Organ

Continuing on with our walking tour, we come to the Old Town Bridge Tower, reputedly the most beautiful Gothic tower in Prague. The architecture reflects the concept of the medieval hierarchical society with the lower part least decorated, commoners walked through here. In the middle part are kings on thrones, Charles IV, his son Wenceslaus IV, and the patron of the bridge, Saint Vitus. And finally, at the top or heavenly part of the tower, is Saint Adalbert of Prague (the first Czech Bishop), and Sigimund of Burgundy (of course, a wine guy on top!).

Old Town Bridge Tower

The bridge itself is of Baroque style standing on 16 arches. There are 30 statues lining the walkway with the most popular being St. John of Nepomuk. I have no idea where or what a “Nepomuk” is, but I do know this, St. John wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. Seems that ole John decided to keep the queen’s secrets of confession from the king. Not a good idea. The king had John tortured then threw his body into the river. Legend has it that if you touch the reliefs on the side of this statue, your wish will come true. Too bad John didn’t have these back in his day.

Mom-bear in Prague

St. John

Left side relief of St John’s statue

Right side relief of St John’s statue

On to more uplifting sites. Here we have a sculpture called, “The House of the Suicide” by artist John Hejduk, an American sculptor. The work is to commemorate Jan Palach for his self-immolation in 1969 to protest Soviet occupation. (He set himself on fire and ran through the square!) The sculpture on the right is called, “The House of Suicide” and the one on the left is called, “The House of the Mother of the Suicide.” Several students followed Palach’ example and committed self-immolation.

House of the Mother of the Suicide

One more stop before calling it a day. Not whimping out, we still need to have a pastry and coffee, then find a grocery store for some basic food stuff. Off to the Astronomical Clock! (Hint: not extremely large)

OK, ready? The astronomical clock is a small model of the universe. It was installed in the current position in 1410. That’s the easy stuff. The clock shows Central European time, Old Czech time (a form of timekeeping with the sunset), Babylonian time used by merchants. It also shows how high the sun is in the sky, whether it’s in the Tropic of Capricorn or Cancer, whether it is rising or setting and what zodiac sign it is in. But wait, there’s more!

Astronomical Clock

The clock shows the position of the moon and its phases, the spring and autumn equinox, summer and winter solstice and lastly, the four seasons! No, not Franky Valli! These features have been working for more than 600 years!

One other “feature” that draws a crowd is the hourly procession of the apostles which takes place on the hour. The windows above the clock open to show the twelve apostles moving by in time with the clock chimes. (See video)

Leaving you with a few pics of the neighborhood.

Yep, legal here.

Just a sittin on the wall.

Prague Castle from Charles Bridge

Russian war memorial

Charles Bridge

Old Town Square