The Prague Castle

“For more than a thousand years, Czech leaders have ruled from Prague Castle. Today, Prague’s Castle is, by some measures, the biggest on earth.” Rick Steves – Prague

Our Saturday was slated for the Prague Castle which has several main attractions. We ate breakfast at the apartment, walked down the street to the corner store to buy our bus passes, rode the bus to the Prague Castle and met these royal guards at the entrance…

This was the first courtyard. Try to imagine Matt running towards the fountain in the middle and then climbing up the stairs to take a look at the water only to be picked up and cheek to cheek with an Asian man and be the focus of a dozen pictures. This does frequently happen but it’s surprising, none the less. Once we safely had our son back, we couldn’t stop laughing.

The changing of the guards…

The Basilica and Convent of St. George

The Red building behind the gang below is Prague’s best-preserved Romanesque church. The walls were made of limestone (the rock that Prague rests on) and the ceiling made of wood.

Still within the castle walls, walking to another section, we stop to watch the guards march through…

Golden Lane is this quaint street of old buildings, which originally housed goldsmiths. We wandered through interested in the medieval weapons and armor. We found an interesting store full of swords and little knight figurines. Chris paid a couple of Euro and handed Luke and Matt their own miniature silver ‘knight’ which they were pretty excited about and kept in and out of their pockets the whole day.

Old Royal Palace – “Starting in the 12th century this was the seat of the Bohemian princes. While extensively rebuilt, the Large Hall is late Gothic designed as a multi purpose hall for the old nobility. It’s big enough for jousts – even the staircase was designed to let a mounted solider gallop in. It was filled with market stalls, giving nobles a chance to shop without actually going into town. In the 1400s, the nobility met here to elect their king.” Rick Steves Prague

Views of Prague from the Castle:

St. Vitus Cathedral

It was hard to get the whole Cathedral in the picture… hence this distorted one. It was quite massive.

This was of the rear of the Cathedral…

“The Roman Catholic cathedral symbolizes the Czech spirit -- it contains the tombs and relics of the most important local saints and kings, including the first three Habsburg kings.

Started in 1344, construction was stalled by wars and plagues. But fueled by the 19th century rise of Czech nationalism, Prague’s top church was finished in 1929 for the 1,000th anniversary of the death of St. Wenceslas. While is looks all Gothic, it’s actually two distinct halves: the original 14th century Gothic around the high altar, and the modern neo-Gothic nave. For 400 years, a temporary wall sealed off the functional, yet unfinished, cathedral.” Rick Steves Prague

Beautiful stained glass windows by Czech artist Alfons Mucha in 1931.

What I don’t have a picture of is Brian smiling. He LOVED the outside and inside of this Cathedral and it probably ended up being one of his favorite things of the whole trip. The pictures definitely don’t do it justice. Chris and I have seen a lot of cathedrals and this one took us back. It was beautiful. Fun to be able to share it with Brian. He and his macro lens enjoyed every minute of it.