Well today was church day! I decided to check out the inside of all these beautiful churches. In my opinion, each one is like a painting and most have such an interesting history to them so here goes in the order of the pics.
The first is the Church of St Nicholas (in the Little Quarter). It’s a Jesuit church and if you zoom in you can see at the top a gold plated Nicholas flanked by the two top Jesuits, St Ignatius Loyola and St Francis Xavier. Sounds like a couple college basketball teams!
Next is the Church of St Nicholas (in the Old Town). These two “St Nick” churches are just across the river from each other… you think they could have come up with a different name! This one was built between 1732 and 1737 on the site of a Gothic Church from the 13th century.
The next one is actually not a church but the library of the Strahov Monastery (the Monastery was not open to the public) but it was so beautiful I had to take a pic.
The next two pics have some interesting history to them. They are both inside the Loretta Church, which is the Czech pilgrims departure point to Santiago de Compostela (Way of St James) in Northwest Spain. The first pic is what some consider to be an original beam from Mary’s home in Nazareth. They also call this “little Bethlehem” and consider it to be one of the holiest spots in their country.
The next pic, and I promise you I’m not making this up, is the St Bearded Woman (Svata Starosta). This patron saint of unhappy marriages is a woman whose family arranged for her to marry a pagan man. She prayed for a way to get out of it and suddenly she grew a beard. So then the guy said… ummm, no way! While she managed to avoid the marriage, it angered her father, who crucified her. Very sad.
Next is the huge St Vitus Cathedral. It’s more than 400 feet long and 100 feet high. And it took almost 600 years to build! (mostly due to little things like wars and plagues!). It was started in 1344 and completed in 1929. But there was a front section of the church completed much sooner than that.
The next one is also St Vitus Cathedral showing it’s beautiful rear stained glass window (and all the tourists underneath!).
Last but not least is the Brevnov Monastery where I’m staying. That’s my room right next to the altar (St Jeff’s! Lol). I think I mentioned this before but it’s the oldest monastery in the Czech lands founded in 993 AD.
Well that’s it for today and that’s it for Prague. I really enjoyed it here and would definitely come back.
I cross back into Germany tomorrow to spend 3 nights in Dresden. Since I’m traveling and it’s supposed to be a rainy day, I’ll skip sending an email on Sunday. See you all on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 