Prague Weekend

08/15/09 – 08/17/09

The second weekend of our trip had arrived, and many of us took advantage of the extra day off to take a short trip to a nearby city. Chris, Sarah, Melodie, Zach, Tyler, Alex, Laurel, and I decided to go to Prague and experience some of what the Czech Republic has to offer, and we were not disappointed. On the outside the city of Prague reminded me powerfully of Vienna, with a similar layout that was based around something of an Old Town city center, and architecture that would catch you off guard with its scope and beauty. Of course the attraction that many tourists flock to see is the famous Astronomical Clock in the Old City center, which (according to a tour guide) was the most overrated tourist attraction in all of Europe (followed closely by the Glockenspiel in Munich). I enjoyed seeing the clock make its transition, but I had to agree that the immense crowd that had gathered to watch the thing was far too big to justify how anti-climactic the actual event was. That in itself was something to behold; an entire crowd of people walking away looking slightly disappointed by what they had just witnessed.

It was almost oppressively hot for the two and a half days that we were in Prague, which did not deter (some) of us from trekking up to the famous castle that overlooks Prague from atop a hill. Laurel and I got lost on the subway system in our attempts to get to the correct stop, and as a result we ended up having to walk extremely fast in order to catch the Changing of the Guard that was supposed to occur at noon. The Changing of the Guard actually occurs every hour, but at noon there is a special ceremony/flourish that was very interesting to see. We arrived just as they were beginning the surprisingly long process of salutes and marches, accompanied by a six piece brass band that trumpeted out at each interval. A crowd of several hundred people gathered around the castle’s first square to have a look at the ceremony, which made viewing a little difficult, but it was a very interesting process to witness nonetheless. It made me think about how long this ceremony had been performed for, and what had been added or subtracted from it over the years. Of course I have no doubt that the crowds of people watching the event must have been a relatively recent development (within the last 70 years or so I would imagine), but the guards remain very traditional and extremely serious in their work. I doubt that the castle guards in the past had much use for such an elaborate ceremony every day, but something similar was likely used for special occasions. We didn’t have time to take the castle tour, and trying to research the history of the Castle Guards invariably led me to a site that said “take the castle tour for more information.”

One of the significant historical sites that we were determined to find was the plaque commemorating those that were killed in retaliation of the Second Defenestration of Prague in 1618. The Imperial Governors of Prague that had been assigned by Ferdinand II, who had been elected to succeed the aging Matthias as King of Bohemia, were tried and found guilty of violating Rudolf II’s decree of freedom of religion within the Bohemian States, and subsequently thrown out of a window that was about 30 meters high. Of course Ferdinand did not take kindly to his Imperial Governors being treated in such a way, despite the fact that they miraculously survived the fall by landing in a dry moat that had a large pile of horse manure in the bottom. Many of the leaders of the revolt were summarily executed in the Old City Square in Prague, and this event seemed to symbolize the cities ongoing resistance to Habsburg influence and control. This is extremely odd when considering that here in Vienna the Habsburgs are celebrated at almost every turn, so it seems natural that they would be respected throughout what was their former kingdom. Not so in the Czech Republic, at least in Prague, as they clearly did not associate themselves as being former subjects of the Habsburgs, almost in a similar way that the Viennese do not consider themselves to have been subjects of the Third Reich. Of course the two cannot really be compared in light of the extremely different times that they were in, but the sentiment seems similar to somebody simply observing how a city chooses to remember its past. We never did succeed in finding the plaque, but the lack of Habsburg remembrance was enough to show what the city thought about its past association with the family, and their continued resistance to the very idea. It seems extremely odd to an American that people could hold on to their animosity and political affiliations for almost 400 years, but our country is much younger so it’s almost impossible to associate with that sort of tradition.

The people in Prague seemed much more accepting of tourism on the whole, and were friendlier at restaurants, bars, tourist points, etc. It was easy to see in the fact that the menus were invariably in several languages, and the waiters/waitresses were willing to return a smile more often than not. It was very refreshing after dealing with the Viennese attitude for a couple of weeks, but in some sense it made the city feel like more of a tourist destination than Vienna. I certainly prefer Prague’s attitude to Vienna’s, but I can see how it can almost detract from the uniqueness and historical significance of the city. I don’t think that the Viennese are thinking about preserving their city’s integrity when they are being rude, but the overall affect can make Vienna feel like a more preserved city of old.