Characters encountered in Czech religious history

Gargoyle on St. Vitus

Before Communism turned them into atheists, Czechs were rabid followers of Catholicism, a religion that insures a bloody history full of memorable characters. The proof:

JOHN HUS

A century before Martin Luther this Czech figured out that the Catholic church was flawed. People, he thought, should be allowed to read the Bible in their own language without threat of death and predetermination might be a little harsh also, he felt, the power of the pope too all encompassing. These views -- essentially the foundation of Protestantism -- made him unpopular with clergy who put him on trial, burned him at the stake -- naked in a fire started with pages of a non-Latin Bible --then dumped his ashes in the Rhine River. This was in 1415. But towns throughout the Czech Republic today have streets that carry his name and his statue dominates Old Town Square in Prague.

JAN ZIZKA

He was a Hus follower (A Hussite. A Hussy is something else) and a general. You can always pick him out of Czech historical paintings as the guy with the eye patch. Apparently he started out early as a fighter and lost the eye in a childhood fight. It was the first of many. He recruited peasants and farmers into a band of soldiers after the Holy Roman Empire killed Hus as a heretic and sent a series of armies into Bohemia. They used farm wagons and tools and he experimented with pistols, which could work against charging knights so long as farm boy-soldiers stood behind the right defenses. The story is that Zizka never lost a battle. He was wounded in a battle in 1421 that left him totally blind -- but he still led his forces. When he eventually died of the plague in 1424 his last wish was that his men would make drums out of his skin so he could continue to lead them in war.

Like I say, memorable.

The Infant of Prague

My grandmother, and probably yours too if you grew up Catholic, kept a statue of the Infant of Prague on the doily of the tall dresser in her bedroom. When my mother cleaned. she would always dust the tall crown and beneath the colorful silk robe of this dandified baby Jesus who holds a cross in one hand and a bird in the other. I never really got the symbolism. I still don't. Prague is home to the Church of Our Lady Victorious where the original statue -- made of wax -- continues to draw thousands of fans (they are called pilgrims). The status was a gift in 1628 to Bohemian Barefoot Carmelite nuns (they take a vow of poverty) from a Spanish princess. "Honor this image," she supposedly told them,"and you shall never want." But war, transfer of the nunnery to Germany and confiscation of churches in the city by the King of Sweden left the little statue in a bunch of trash behind the altar where it spent seven years until a priest found it, the hands broken off. OK, now the story gets weird. One day the priest is praying and he hears a little voice saying, "Give me my hands, and I will give you peace. The more you honor me, the more I will bless you."
What more can I tell you except that my grandmother's plaster copy infant had hands -- although the edges of its crown were chipped.

Bercherovka

A lovely Czech aperitif that the Posners turned me on to (because really exposure to another form of alcohol was something I really needed) is Becherovka. It smells herbal and is kind of bitter-sweet and you ca drink it over ice (with lime wedges) or diluted with tonic water (which is called Beton). 

I brought some home and have since discovered that you can blend Becherovka with lime, amaretto, cherry juice, sugar and ice. 

I am hoping that Hawley and Lisa, the bartenders in my life are reading this. I also bought a selection of absinthe which mostly I like having because I imagine Hemingway and Picasso or Havel and Kafka drinking it.

On the non-alcoholic front, a busy Starbucks now sits at Malostranske Namesti -- Bohemianism has taken a blow in Prague.

Something about Prague

The Posners lived in Prague for four years in he 1990s but keep coming back to the city once or twice a year. They feel connected to the place the way I do to Sarajevo and I asked Ann why.

There's something about the people, she says, an energy, the Bohemian spirit maybe. She likes that there is a Fringe Festival going on while we are there  -- no real festival around which odd acts and vendors congregate just the Fringe party like it's the odd and quirky that IS the attraction.

She likes the pretty Czech money and that the 500 Crown note ($25) pictures Bozena Nemcova, the author of a novel called The Grandmother, who was liberated, talented and immensely unhappy because of a bad marriage and the death of her teen-age son from TB. 

I digress.

Ann likes that she sees different things every time she comes back, or maybe things that were there but she didn't see before. She likes the way spoken Czech sounds like people walking on tiptoe. 

She likes that at certain times in some places in the city you can squint and close out the cars and the tourists and go back  in time several centuries.

I like that the city inspire such images from her. And she's right. Walk around, which we did constantly, and you run into a blind man playing the accordion and beggars supine on the pavement holding out their hates and police guarding a stranded swan and couples kissing ad people drinking beer everywhere and artists doing caricatures and oil paintings and tourists with all kinds of cameras and tripods. Not to mention a herd of nerdy-looking guys in pink T-shirts that proclaimed, "Beaver Patrol."

While we were in town, a local magazine ran a story that included this quote from Clare Wigfall, an English writer who lives in Prague about her favorite place in the city: The tiny winding streets of Hradcany when night has fallen on a winter's evening. They still have the old street lamps up there and these throw an orange glow against the cobblestones. You can almost imagine you've stepped back in time."

 

It's all in the details

Grills, frills, paintings on stone and details are care-

fully attended in Prague. The result is a kind of sensory overload. Buildings seem to vibrate and pop and it's hard to take in everything there is to see.  Interiors are opulent but so are the exteriors.                                            

Violent statues

The accompaniment for this blog is the first movement from the New World Symphony by another great composer Dvorak.

Statues above the gate leading to the Prague Castle suggest that this has not been an exactly peaceable kingdom.

The secret to Ann's shoe collection

My friend Ann is renowned for her collection of pretty, but comfortable shoes (see photo below). Where do you find them? we are always asking her. She revealed her secret in Prague where we all spent some time in Leiser's in Old Town, which turned out to look a lot like Ann's closet! She is unrepentant about her purchases -- despite teasing from Bob and me. She is, she informs us, patronizing local artisans."

And another city vista -- I'll start editing out some pix soon

Listen to this while viewing: Is is the tone poem Vltava by Smetana, great Czech composer Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zuCPYxnqH4&NR=1

As airy and ephemeral as the views are in the city, this seems a good place to talk about Czech food. It's not light.

First, Czechs love their beer, the best know of which is Pilsner.

And with your beer you eat meat  -- especially pork. Wow, especially coming from Sarajevo I appreciated the thick, fatty bacon and pork loin that you didn't even have to chew. The cabbage salads were also great and friend potato balls. dumplings and rice and creamy sauces are common too. Bob ordered the Prague ham as appetizers which was tempting. Ann is not a big fan of this food so we also ate at one of the multitude of Thai restaurants and at Bohemian Bagal, which as you might guess, was American food.

Prague is a little bit of many cities

                                                       You are walking along in Prague -- and the walking there is fantastic -- and you say, Oh, this place reminds me of Venice. A few blocks further on and it could be a fortified city in Croatia, a Roman square ..or a spot in  Mexico City...or sections of Budapest...a neighborhood in Munich.  Prague turns out to be a collection of the best of Europe.

Prague loves animals

                                                                                       You can sightsee in Prague on foot, inside a classic car, by van or in horse-drawn carriages. The horses doing the drawing are among the healthiest animals you've ever seen -- plump, shiny and powerful. They are checked regularly by veterinarians and drivers pamper them. (I also liked how the drivers "toilet-train" their animals, positioning carriages near storm sewers so that their bodily wastes fall immediately into the sewage system not the pretty cobble stones.) 

  We knew Prague was a far cry from African tourist cities in its animal practices even before we came upon two policemen guarding an errant swan that, disoriented and bleeding slightly from a chest wound, ended up off the Vltava River (that's Moldau River if you are trying to win at Trivial Pursuit) and on a sidewalk. The cops said they were waiting for a vet to come and in the meantime were keeping the bird safe from cars and tourists swarms.

Pretty from the bottom up

Prague

is as beautiful as you've heard. I used to say that Budapest was the most gorgeous city I'd ever visited and people would say, "Budapest is nice. Have you seen Prague." Now I know what they are talking about. 

For years under communism the city was drab and gray -- mostly the result of coal burning. You can still see statues and buildings coated in dark grime. But cleaning and restoration is bringing the city of palaces, castles and cathedrals back. The fabulous Charles Bridge over the Vltava River is half rigged with scaffolding as its turn for renovation has arrived.

Prague has 2 million people, but has managed to keep the core city much as it was centuries ago. People live in those horrid square boxes so beloved by Soviet era architects and they are on the outskirts, leaving the mid city pristinely medieval.

The city's cobble stoned streets are one reason for its charm. They are perfectly even and maintained and framed by sidewalks of painstakingly worked-out geometric patterns. They are all variations of white marble and black graphite. 

Apparently, however, Prague residents are not as impressed by their streets as this visitor judging by the frequent piles of dog poop found everywhere. There supposedly is a famous picture of Prince Charles of England on a visit to the city stepping into a steamy heap and wrinkling his nose in disgust.  I have unsuccessfully looked for it.