Prague Part 2 - the Castle

You can't go to Prague and not visit the Castle. As we are staying about 5 minutes from the entrance, we go twice, reasonably early to avoid the crowds.

It's not a single building, but a complete micro-town, with a church and a cathedral, an old convent, a lane of mediaeval shops and workrooms, a wall with towers all round, and four palaces. One of these is the home of the Czech President, so there are guards in uniforms at the gates, and you have to go through airport type security to get into the Castle area. We don't have to queue for the security check and although there is quite a queue at the ticket office, we dodge that by good luck when we discover you can also buy tickets at one of the galleries - no queue at all. The tickets conveniently last for 2 days, so on day 1 we do the old Palace, St George's church, Golden Lane (the old shops) and the Lobkowicz Palace, of which the last is the most interesting.

The Lobkowicz family have occupied an important place in Czech history for generations. The 10th Prince fled to USA in 1939 because he was on a Nazi death list (apparently just for being anti-Nazi and extremely wealthy, as they are not Jewish). Their confiscated property was restored to them after WW2, but was then expropriated again by the Communists. In the 1990s, the grandson of the refugee, born in the US, educated at Harvard and a successful property developer, returned to the Czech Republic and fought long legal battles to get all the property back, bit by bit (there are something like 11 castles). You find most of this out from the audioguide for the Palace, which is dictated by said William Lobkowicz.

Peter and I are transfixed in one room dedicated to music-related family history. The 7th Prince was a patron of composers, Beethoven in particular who dedicated three symphonies to him. The room contains scores of these symphonies and a copy of the Messiah with the added orchestration by Mozart, written in by him. Plus an interesting collection of instruments that presumably belonged to the Prince's private orchestra, including some very old clarinets and a basset horn.

On our return trip the next day we do the "Story of Prague Castle" museum, which is more interesting than we anticipate, and the Cathedral, a splendid bit of high Gothic architecture, of particular interest because half of it wasn't built until the late 19th, century, not finally finished until the 20th. The architect of the new bit made it match the 15th century bit perfectly. There are some wonderful, original wood carvings in the old part, one a picture of mediaeval Prague, and two more depicting the building of the cathedral, cranes lifting beams and workmen up ladders. There is also a hideous bit of excessive baroque decoration over St John Nepomuk's grave, courtesy of Maria Theresa. Hard to get past because it seems that every tourist has to take at least one shot of it. Unfortunately it obscures some of the carvings.

Overall we feel we got our money's worth from our 2-day ticket.