Prague Castle Tour

My whole trip to Prague can be found here.

 The history of the castle stretches back to the 9th century (870). The first walled building was the church of Our Lady.  The church on the left, Basilica of St. Vitus wasn't founded until the early 10th century.

The castle was continuously rebuilt, restructured, and added to up through the 20th century with the completion of St. Vitus Cathedral.  Somehow it survived the Germans and Soviet occupations of Prague and now exists as      the seat of the Czech government.    

The name St. Vitus was chosen because when the church was being built, King Wenceslaus, received the arm of St. Vitus from a Vatican emissary.

The legend says that Wenceslaus was very late to dinner with the Vatican emissary.  To punish him, the emissary devised a cruel joke to play at the dinner with other dignitaries to embarrass Wenceslaus. However, when Wenceslaus walked through the door, he had crosses in his eyes.  The emissary realized that he was not acting appropriately for a man of God and offered Wenceslaus anything in the church's treasury.  Instead of gold or riches, Wenceslaus chose the relic of St. Vitus.  The story is portrayed on the door to the church.

At sunset, the church towers glow.

The beautiful rose stained glass window sits above the main entrance of the church.  If you look closely beneath it in either corner are statues of the four men from the 1900s that oversaw the completion of the church.

It took nearly 600 years to finish  St. Vitus!

 One of the many beautiful parts of the castle includes this
mosaic of the rapture.  King Charles did his studying in Italy and fell in love with the mosaics that decorated the churches.  This particular mosaic has over one million stones in it.  





 The entrance to the palace is guarded by two Czech soldiers.  At noon they do a ceremonial changing of the guard, but I didn't have time to witness this.  The two statues are meant to intimidate people because, as my guide said, Czechs aren't very intimidating.  "Oh the Czechs are coming?  Great...do they have beer?"

Last thing I want to share is the jousting hall in the Royal Palace.

During the turn of the 16th century., there was a king who absolutely LOVED jousting.  Since the winter months weren't pleasant to sit outside and watch the revelry, he had one of the major halls renovated so that a man and horse in armor could fit through the doors.  It's 200x52x40  (ft.) with vaulted ceilings, one of the most masterful pieces of architecture at the time.