Prague – Day 5

So today I decided to find some of the off the beaten path places within Prague. Those places where there aren’t hordes of tourists. So I’ll explain them in order of the pictures.

The first two are from the Wallenstein Palace Garden. It was tucked away behind this Metro station and sorta hard to find. It was commissioned during the Thirty Years’ War by the Habsburg general and Czech nobleman Albrecht z Valdstejna (Albrecht von Wallenstein in German). The palace part is closed to the public but the gardens were open and the upper chamber is where the Czech Parliament meets.

The next one is a picture of Prague’s most worshipped treasure that is tucked away in the Church of St Mary the Victorious. It’s called the Infant of Prague and is a little statue of the baby Jesus. Brought to the Czech lands during the Habsburg era by a Spanish noblewoman who came to marry a Czech nobleman, the Infant has become a focus of worship and miracle tales in Prague and Spanish-speaking countries. South Americans come on pilgrimages to Prague just to see this one statue. An exhibit upstairs in the church showed all the tiny embroidered robes given to the Infant, including one from the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa in 1754.

The next was the entrance to an area called Kampa Island. It’s tucked away under the pedestrian Charles Bridge and has lots of pubs, parks and art galleries. It was funny that right above it on the Charles Bridge were thousands of tourists but down here there were hardly any. A nice little get away spot.

The next one shows that while the Czechs may not have liked Vladimir Lenin, they loved John Lennon and felt his songs gave them hope and a vision. This is called the Lennon Wall and when he was killed in 1980, this large wall was spontaneously covered with memorials to Lennon and lyrics from Beatles songs.

The next one was just a shot I took while walking the back streets of Prague. Felt it had sort of a Venice feel to it and just liked the setting. Very peaceful.

The next is a funny looking building they call the Dancing House. It’s nicknamed “Fred and Ginger” since on the left is the eight-legged Ginger Rogers’ wispy dress and on the right is Fred Astaire’s metal mesh head. It’s the work of architect Frank Gehry who designed the equally striking Guggenheim Museum in Balboa Spain and Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture. I swore as I stared at the building on the left that it was moving!

And last but surely not least is the saddest picture that has some really grim history to it. The picture is busts of the Czech people’s two greatest 20th century heroes, Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis, in the crypt of the St Cyril and Methodius Church where they were killed. The history is as follows.

In Sept 1941, Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi second in command, Hitler’s personal favorite, and the architect of the Holocaust, became governor of the occupied Czech lands. He violently lashed out against any hint of resistance and was both feared and hated by the Czech people. At the time, the Czech government was in exile in Great Britain. The two paratroopers (Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis) volunteered to work with British Special Operations on a secret and potentially suicidal mission (called Anthropoid) to kill Reinhard Heydrich. On the morning of May 27, 1942, Heydrich was commuting to work and Gabcik jumped in front of his car to shoot him but his gun jammed. Kubis then threw a grenade that missed but exploded outside the car injuring Heydrich and he died a few days later. The two men, with a few other helpers that were part of the mission, snuck off to hide in the crypt of the St Cyril and Methodius Church. The Nazi retaliation to the murder was brutal. All the people in two whole villages, even though they had nothing to do with it, were executed and over the next several months 5,000 were killed. A huge reward was announced for the captives and Karel Curda, a member of another paratrooper unit betrayed his comrades and led the Nazis to the church. On June 18, at 4:15 AM, the Gestapo surrounded the church. After a two hour battle, Kubis was killed and Gabcik knowing he would be too committed suicide. Very sad ending for two heroes.

Heydrich – who’s elimination was one of the most significant acts of resistance in occupied Europe – remains the highest ranking Nazi official killed while in office.

Well that’s all for today. TGIF to all and hope you have a great Friday!

Jeff