By ED LOWE
Special to the Journal & Topics Newspapers
Unlike Gaul, all Prague was divided into four parts‹plus a castle. The consolidation into one city didn't happen until late in Prague's life when, in 1784, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Josef II united four of the townships into a single city. The city is bisected by the Vltava (Moldau) River. The western banks house the Castle District, and its cathedral complex plus the "Little Quarter" (Mala Strana). On the eastern side, across one of the 18 bridges that span the river, are the three other sections that comprise the core of present day Prague.
Prague is a walking city‹one that requires a tourist to consider three major elements to enjoy his visit. First, a good map of the city is essential to find your way through the curving, sometimes narrow, cobblestone streets. Second, a logical plan for seeing the dozens of tourist sites that are scattered through these quarters‹and that usually means a good quality guide book. And finally, the stamina that it takes to walk through the streets and museums. It will take three or four days‹a full week if you really want to see the whole city, so plan your visit accordingly.
Our first stop was in the Old Town (Stare Mesto) with the town square at its center. Old Town became a municipality in 1348 and has developed its distinctive personality over the centuries since that time. One museum on the town square is the Golz-Kinski Palace featuring portraiture and furnishings. Once home to one of Prague's richest and most powerful families, it has been converted into a museum displaying temporary exhibits from the National Gallery. Signage there is in both English and Czech.
The main feature of the Old Town Square is the world famous astronomical clock. It shows the phases of the moon, three different kinds of time, a calendar, signs of the zodiac and a parade of the Apostles. Moving figures of a Turk and Death are on one side of the clock; Vanity and Greed are on the other. All are activated on the hour. It took more than 20 years for the master watchmaker to complete the clock in 1410. It's been working well ever since. While waiting for the clock to begin its hourly cycle of movement, you might want to stop in one of several nearby sidewalk cafes. The square teems with locals, young people and tourists bustling from palace to monument to historic building. On the hour, everyone seems to congregate at the clock tower to watch the ancient animation.
Surrounding the square are numerous Baroque buildings having a history relating to Prague. For example, when the author Franz Kafka studied in the Kinski Palace, he frequented a tavern "At The Golden Unicorn" a building which still stands. Most of these buildings have wrought iron signage on their fronts with the names and logos of the establishments. The signage was designed to identify a building to an illiterate populace. There are the "Storks," "Blue Star" and the "Stone Table" among others. All these names are preceded by the words "At The," so that people could describe where they were going. Central to the square is the large monument to the memory of Jan Hus the religious reformer who preceded Martin Luther by almost a century and who figured prominently in Prague and Bohemia's religious history.
Also in the Old Town, you will want to visit the Powder Gate, once one of the principal entries to the town and the place where gunpowder was stored to defend the city. Architecturally interesting, the entire Old Town area preserves the flavor of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Shops there feature Bohemian glass, lace and other handicrafts.
North of the Old Town is the area called Josefov, the Jewish Quarter. When Hitler announced his "final solution" to eradicate the world's Jewish population, he planned a museum to hold the artifacts and religious ritual objects of "an extinct culture." The Museum proudly exists. Fortunately, Hitler does not. His planned Museum is a memorial to the 80,000 Czech Jews ‹ 45,500 from Prague alone ‹ who died in the extermination camps during the Nazi era between 1938 when Germans occupied the city and 1945 when the war ended.
One part of this Jewish Museum complex is the Jewish Cemetery holding an estimated 12,000 headstones. Buried in this hallowed ground are merchants, artisans and tradesmen; educators and philosophers whose works infused Jewish history and religious development through the ages. The graves of renowned Rabbis and Sages who lived and worked in Prague are still being visited by scholars who study their work. Attached to the walled cemetery is the Pinkas Synagogue which has been beautifully restored. On the walls of its sanctuary, the names of those who perished in the Holocaust have been inscribed. The wall lists the birth and presumed death dates of the victims ‹ many of them only young children.
On the second floor of this solemn memorial is a display of the pictures painted by children who were taken from their parents to Terezin, a concentration camp near Prague. This was intended by the Nazis to be the show camp where Red Cross workers could visit and see the humane way in which the children were being cared for while their parents were "working in the factories producing material for the Reich." Of 8,000 children "exported" from Terezin to "relocation" sites, fewer than 300 survived.
The Klausen Synagogue, a structure rebuilt after a fire in 1694, houses a collection of Judaica ‹ both religious and personal objects. Clothing, cooking utensils, everyday plates and glassware from Jewish homes are displayed. There are marriage contracts and wedding canopies, even a ritual wedding ring. Many of the ritual objects from the synagogue are done in gleaming silver with torah breast plates, and crowns, wine cups and ceremonial objects all among the best examples of silversmiths' art.
The oldest structure in the Jewish Quarter is the "Old-New Synagogue" the oldest surviving synagogue in Europe. It is originally dated from the mid-13th Century when it was called the "New" synagogue. As the community expanded, other synagogues were built and the "New" synagogue could no longer lay claim to that name. Hence, it became the "Old-New" synagogue, a name that identifies it to this day.
Seating in this Gothic structure is limited to about 100 people on high-backed wooden benches arranged around three sides of the hall. The fourth side ‹ the Eastern Wall ‹ is reserved for the Holy Ark, the Torah and the eternal light that is a part of every synagogue. Limited seating along the Eastern Wall was reserved for the learned Rabbis who attended services. To be seated nearest the ark was considered the highest of honors. In the center of the hall is a lectern that served as the focal point for readers during the services. Above the small rosette window on the Eastern Wall is inscribed in Hebrew the biblical words "Know Before Whom Thou Stand ‹ The Lord."
The Jewish Quarter is not a simple place of pilgrimage for Jewish visitors to Prague. Signage is in several languages and explanations are kept simple for those who haven't been exposed to Jewish culture. Of those estimated 7,500 remaining members of the once vibrant Jewish community in Bohemia and Moravia, 2,500 live in Prague. Their mission is to show the world that the Jewish presence in The Czech Republic continues today and offers to help non-Jewish visitors learn more about the customs and traditions that survived the Holocaust.
The final quarter of the city, on the Vltava's eastern banks is called the New Town (Nove Mesto.) One of Prague's most famous centers, Wenceslas Square, is at the core of New Town. The Square figured prominently in the 1989 Velvet Revolution which ousted communist rule and finally transformed the government into a democracy. But it was also a part of an earlier unsuccessful uprising in 1968 when Soviet tanks were called in to confront rebellious students demanding increased freedom. The "square" is a long, relatively narrow mall lined on both sides with department stores, shops, restaurants, familiar fast food franchises and hotels. The street is about a half mile in length and is divided by a strip of greenery. Its end is capped by a statue of St. Wenceslas and the National Natural History Museum.
In this district, you'll find the cultural center of Prague. Besides the National Museum, the State Opera is located in the area as is the National Theater. There's also a museum to Prague's Antonin Dvorak, the composer whose "New World Symphony" incorporates several American folk songs in its score. Charles IV who gave his name to Prague's most famous bridge also founded botanical gardens which still bloom in the New Town district.
Prague revels in its variety ‹ its architectural diversity that ranges from Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque structures to the Frank Gehry designed ultra-modern office building. There are churches dating back centuries, and synagogues whose origins are in antiquity.
There's art from classical Renaissance paintings to the most modern artists of the 21st Century. In fact, there's a sampling of some of the best Europe has had to offer ‹ and reminders of some of the worst.
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