Lesser Town, Prague

We continued our visit to Prague with a walking tour from our guide. The highlight of the day was the Charles Bridge built in 1357 by Charles IV. His statue is right at the foot of the bridge. This bridge was preceded 200 years earlier by the Judith Bridge, which was swept away by a flood. The Charles Bridge was completely underwater in 2002, but is still functional. The secret they claim is that the mortar was made with egg yolks. From 1600 to 1800 several statues have been added to the bridge. But the views from the bridge were simply spectacular, we just wished that the sun had been out. As it was the hills around us were wrapped in fog. After crossing the bridge from Old Town we were in Lesser Town at the foot of Prague Castle. Many of the government buildings and embassies are in Lesser Town. We visited the Church of Our Lady Victorious to see the Infant Jesus of Prague. This Jesus statue was given as a wedding gift in the 16th century, but it eventually ended up in a monastery. The legend goes that the monastery and Infant Jesus were damaged in 1861 at the start of the thirty years war. It was found 30 years later missing its hands and the man who discovered it heard a voice that if he would restore the hands, peace would return. Many people have been cured on pilgrimage to the Infant Jesus.

Charles Bridge

After our visit we header to Lesser Square from where we could see one of the three St. Nicholas Churches in the city (the one we had seen from the Castle). Then we entered the Wallenstein gardens and palace built in the sixteenth century. This palace became the home of the Senate after World War II. The unique part of the garden was the weeping stone grotto at one end.

Weeping Stone Grotto

In the afternoon, we went about 50 miles north of Prague to visit the Sychrov(Shivering) Castle. It came by this name because it is at the foot of the mountains of Bohemia where the weather is cooler than Prague. Sure enough the temperature was about 12 degrees cooler than in the city. The Castle should be called a summer palace. It was built by the Rohan family, a high ranking family from France that left after the French Revolution. They built this palace beginning in 1791 and the family owned much of the surrounding countryside. The palace was taken from them after World War II because they were "German Collaborators". Previous to the war, there were 3 Million people of German descent in Czechoslovakia. At the end of the war, only 500,000 were allowed to stay. You had to prove that you hadn't collaborated with the Germans during the war, in order to stay. Our French family was considered collaborators because they took German Citizenship during the war, and the owner had German clients in his law practice.

As we entered the palace, the first thing we noticed was all the coats of arms decorated on the exterior walls. These were the coats of arms of the Rohan’s relatives, proving their royal lineage. The palace is of neo-gothic style. We had a short organ recital in the chapel. This organ had been played several times by Anthony Dvorak since he was friends with the castle keeper. Of course, part of our concert included a movement from his "New World Symphony".



Ceiling in Sychrov Castle

Upon entering the house, we immediately noticed all the woodwork. The wood worker, Peter Bushek, spent 36 years at this castle. His work was exemplified by the master staircase as well as a number of the ceilings. The family coat of arms had a shield with diamonds on one shield and ermine tails on the other - this pattern showed itself in numerous rooms. As we toured the palace, it had all of the original furnishings from the 1800's since the state had confiscated all of the furnishings at the end of the war.  We then walked through the gardens (mostly trees and bushes) which were in full fall colors to the orangery where we had our meal. The best aspect of this tour of the palace is that we had the place all to ourselves, no hurry, no crowds, you could really appreciate the building.