Escaping the Hoards

 Day 32

We were both very keen to avoid the hoards today.  No desire to get sandwiched between groups following flags on sticks, umbrellas, stuffed toys on sticks or even drink bottles held aloft so we decided to postpone our day on the castle side of Prague and look for something less crowded.

 We started with a walk from our hotel up to the Prague TV tower, passing the Catholic Church of St Prokop on the way.  We'd seen it late yesterday and were delighted to wander past just as mass was finishing.  In a country where only 10% of the population profess to follow the Catholic faith, Prague has a lot of Catholic churches.  Congregation this morning looked like it could have been counted on one hand.  The stained glass windows in St Prokop's were gorgeous.

After the TV tower (built between 1985 – 1992 and considered by many to be Prague’s ugliest structure) we stopped for a quick look at the remnants of the Jewish Cemetery (the majority of which had been destroyed in 1984 for the construction of the tower)

A short walk down hill from the hotel to the railway station where we took Metro line A to Vysehrad.    

Vysehrad (Czech for "upper castle") is a historic fort, built in the 10th century, on a hill over the Vltava River.  During the second half of the 11th century, Vratislav (King of Bohemia) transferred his court from Prague Castle, and the original fort was remodelled to accommodate him his family and court. 

Our entry today was through the Leopold Gate - originally Prague had 14 entry gates when it was a walled city.  All but 5 were removed in the mid-late 1800's ... in the name of progress, they needed to widen the roads and build bigger buildings.

We took a stroll round the ramparts before venturing in to explore the interior area. The views over Prague were pretty cool.

Part of the Royal complex, obviously included a church.  This one, built around 1100 and remodelled in the second half of the 14th century and again in 1885 to become the Basilica of St Peter & St Paul dominates the area and has some of the most beautiful interior painting I’ve ever seen.  The Treasury, while only small had a cool collection of reliquaries, liturgical ornaments and a pair of pontifical embroidered goat-skin slippers from 1705.

Nearby is one of Prague’s oldest surviving buildings, the Rotunda of St Martin from the 11th century – complete with canon -ball lodged in its wall.

Wrapping round St Peter & St Paul is the beautifully maintained Vysehrad Cemetery.  It was really touching to see Christmas flowers & wreaths on so many of the graves.  Among its residents is the famous musician Antonín Dvořák.

By now it was getting on towards dusk so we headed past the sweet little Ava Maria Chapel and up onto the ramparts for a quick photo of the Vltava then down to the Brick Gate where we joined a tour of the Casements and Gorlice Hall. 

When the French occupied Vysehrad in 1742 they built tunnels (or casements) inside the ramparts as part of the defensive strategy at the time.  The tunnels we saw joined into the Gorlice Hall – a massive area inside the ramparts that has had various uses including an air-raid shelter during WW1 and potato storage.  It now houses 6 of the original statues from the Charles Bridge which were removed to preserve them from weather and pollution damage in the early 1990’s.

After our tour had finished we headed back to the top of the ramparts, admiring moonrise once again, to watch the 6pm fireworks.  Last night the locals let off their fireworks – tonight the city put on their display.