And then there's Prague- Castle part 1

26.07.2015

My first morning in Prague was cloudy and a refreshing 23 degrees (lovely after the last few weeks of 35 to 42). I walked 100 mtrs down the road and caught a modern tram which took me for a half hour ride through town, over the river, and up a steep hill to the Prague Castle complex. That cost me a $2 ticket and was a good way to see some of Prague on the way. Building on the Castle and the churches inside the grounds was started in 870 by Saint Wenceslas and his father King Vratislav of Bohemia. They started work on the Church of St Vitus, and the St. George Basilica. Over the centuries various Palaces were built on the grounds and it was the seat of power for Bohemian Kings, Holy Roman Emperors, and Presidents of Czechoslovakia. In 1060 St. Vitus church was enlarged to a Basilica and in 1344 a start was made to turn that into the Gothic Cathedral that exists today. Things moved slowly and it took 600 years to complete a unified vision of the present day Cathedral. Within the Cathedral is the Saint Wenceslas Chapel ( the same Good King Wenceslas as the Christmas carol) where his body is laid to rest. Within that chapel is a room which holds the Coronation jewels and regalia that have been used to crown Kings of Bohemia in the Cathedral, since the 14th century. The door to the room has seven locks, and each of the seven keys is held by seven different high officials in the church and the Czech government. They have to be turned at the same time to open the room, and this only happens now every ten years or so when the Crown Jewels are exhibited for a limited time in the Prague Castle. I bought a ticket for entrance to the Cathedral, the Old Palace, the St George Basilica, and Gold Street (used to be full of Goldsmiths). It was good value for about $8 (for over 65s). When I looked at all my photos though I had to break the blog into two parts, starting with the St Vitus Cathedral and the Old Palace. The Cathedral was all a Gothic Cathedral should be with high vaulted ceilings, colourful stained glass windows, and a spooky feeling that made you feel you wouldn't want to be locked in there for the night. As well as King/Saint Wenceslas being buried here, and multiple Kings of Bohemia, the tomb of Saint John of Nepomuk is a huge fixture in the front of the Cathedral. Now life is stranger than fiction, and when I first saw the name Saint John of Nepomuk I thought "hold on, someone is joking". But no it's true, and it is an amazing story. The story is that King Wenceslas 1V had a beautiful wife whom he thought was cheating on him with another man. He ordered his wife's confessor ( the vicar John of the town of Nepomuk) to tell him if she had confessed to having a lover, but John refused to break the Sacred seal of confession. Even under torture he refused to tell the King anything that his wife had confessed to him. This infuriated the King and he had John thrown off the Charles Bridge tied to a cartwheel to be drowned. His body was later found and he was buried, but the next year Bohemia suffered a severe drought. The church leaders who knew what had happened told the people that the drought was the fault of the King for martyring John, and the King was pressured to build a grandiose tomb in the Cathedral of St. Vitus for the Vicar, who later became Saint John of Nepomuk (Patron Saint of The Seal of the Confessional, and of Bridges.) Next up was the Old Palace, and it felt like an old and uncomfortable empty space to live in. They did however have a crown room on an upper floor and there they showed copies of the Crown Jewels......

entry to Castle complex grounds