Other Prague posts on this blog:
- Art Nouveau in Prague
- Viktor Oliva at Café Slavia
- František Bílek house-museum in Prague
- Strahov Monastery (library & wunderkammer) in Prague
- Sedlec Ossuary near Prague
- Mucha’s Slav Epic
Old Town Square and Astronomical Clock:
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This clock was built in 1410 and today the mechanism still works: on the hour, the skeleton rings the bell and immediately all other figures shake their heads, side to side, signifying their unreadiness “to go.” There is also a presentation of statues of the Apostles at the doorways above the clock, with all twelve presented every hour.
The four figures flanking the clock are set in motion at the hour, these represent four things that were despised at the time of the clock’s making: Vanity, represented by a figure admiring himself in a mirror; a miser holding a bag of gold represents greed or usury. Across the clock stands Death, a skeleton that strikes the time upon the hour and the Turk.
The calendar plate below the clock represents 12 months and they were painted by Josef Mànes in 1866.
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designed by Ladislav Šaloun, 1915
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door of the Old Town Hall
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Veletržní Palác :
Veletržní Palác (Trade-fair Palace) is a section of the National Gallery in Prague it is according to me the best museum of city. It shows art from XIX and XX century. Beyond the fact that it has a remarkable collection of internationl art of the XX cent (with materworks by Klimt, Schiele, Munch, Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Rodin, Gauguin, Cézanne,Renoir, Schiele, Munch, Miró), what I find really interesting is the collection of czech painters at the third floor. So I rather preferred to spent more time seeing paintings from artists I didn’t know about like
The great attraction of the museum is the Slav Epic at the ground floor: 20 huge canvas painted by Alfons Mucha. I will talk about Mucha in another post.
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Slav Epic by A. Mucha “The Slavs in Their Original Homeland”, 1912. Detail
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Slav Epic by A. Mucha “The Slavs in Their Original Homeland”, 1912. Detail
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Frantisek Kupka: Babylon, 1906
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Frantisek Kupka: The way of Silence, 1903
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Maximilian Pirner “Love, Thought and Life” 1924. Detail
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Frantisek Kupka “Portrai of the artist’s wife” 1905
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Frantisek Kupka
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Frantisek Kupka, Cabaret Actress, 1909-10
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Jaroslav Panuska “Visiting the Death”, 1897
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Jaroslav Panuska, “Water Sprite”, 1896
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Jan Preisler “Adam and Eve”, 1908
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Jan Preisler “Lovers”, 1904
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Jan Preisler “Study for a Triptych”, 1900
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Jan Preisler “The black lake”
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Vase with baths, ca. 1910
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Frantisek Bilek “Mother!”, 1899
Bilek was an amazing wood-sculptur, but he was a great illustrator too. This work shows the drawing of a figure which the artist repeated on the wood frame.
This is just one of Bilek’s works in the gallery, but I will talk about the artist in another post. In Prague there still is his house museum.
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Jewish Museum:
I must say that the jewish museum, except for the jewish cemetery and the spanish synagogue, was quite disappointing.
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Klaus Synagogue
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Jewish cemetery
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Pinkas Synagogue
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Spanish synagogue
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a copy of Bilek’s Moses (the original in wood is at Villa Bilek)
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magnificent buildings at Parizka street
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inside the cubist Grand Orient Café
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my friend Gio at Grand Orient Café
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my friend Gio and me. I noticed that is quite usual in a lot of cafés and restaurants to smoke inside!
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Strahov Monastery (more in another post)
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Italian embassy at Nerudova street
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the city is full of doors decorated in this way
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me at Villa Bilek
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inside Villa Bilek. More about this artist and his house museum in another post
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Loreta:
Loreta is a monastery in which there is a copy of the ”Holy House” of Nazareth worshipped in the Italian Loreto. But I found more interesting other two things: the statue of Saint Wilgefortis or the bearded saint and the death frescoes discovered just two year ago.
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the holy house
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church of the Lord’s Birth
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Saint Wilgefortis. For ther story and legend read here
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death frescos are now impossible to visit. This is just a reproduction shown at the first floor of the convent
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the magnificent art nouveau facede of the Grand Hotel Europe
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a puppet shop found at the end of Nerudova street
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Sarah Bernhardt restaurant
This amazing blue-decorated place is the Sarah Bernhardt restaurant, inside the Hotel de Paris. I loved the color and the waitress was very kind and told us that it was built in 1904-8 and it’s owned by the family Brandejs ever since.
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absentee at the famous Hemingway bar
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Municiapal house at Namesti Republiky
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inside the café of the Municiapal house.
I must say the café, along with the restaurant and all the building, is treated in a very commercial and cheap way that is totally unfair considering the historic and artistic importance that it has.
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inside the café of the Esplanade Hotel
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Sedlec ossuary:
(more here)
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me at Sedlec ossuary
The Castle:
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St. Vitus
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the magnificent art nouveau glass by A. Mucha
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Crucifix in wood by F. Bilek
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St. Vitus tomb
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Saint John Nepomuceno’s tomb
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chapel of S. Wenceslas
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cealing of the Old Royal Palace
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inside St. George
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tavern at the Gold Lane
the Gold Lane, at the end of the castle, is s narrow street with untouched indoors belonged to several persons.
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the goldsmith’s workshop and dwelling
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residence of the amateur film historian and collector J. Kazda
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little house of card-reader and fortune teller Matylda Prusova, aka Madame de Thebe
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view from the castle
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