Monday 30 September 2013

Old Town Square

I moved to Prague today so me and Aussie did some neccessary shopping. And because we live in the centre of historic Prague it was a great opportunity to show Aussie Prague's beauty :)

Church of St. Havel between Wenceslas and Old Town square.
Entering the Old Town Square. Together with Wenceslas square (which is the longest square in whole country) this is the most famous square in Prague. The gothic building on right is "Church of Our Lady in front of Týn".  The building on left is one of the most popular touristic places...



...the Prague astronomical clock. We call it orloj and it's much cooler than it looks at the first sight :) It was created in the Middle Ages- 1410- yet it's very complex and more genius than many modern buildings of its kind (and prettier :) ). It's also the oldest astronomical clock that is still working. It shows a few different times, the position of Sun and Moon, astronomical cycles, the state of zodiac, the phase of moon etc. There are numerous wooden figures  like the Death, a philosopher, archangel Michael etc. on orloj. Inside of it there are mechanical figures of 12 Apostles who come from the two windows above the Clock and walk around every hour. There are always hundreds of people in front of Orloj waiting for the figures to come out.

There are many legends about Orloj. It is said that at the times of its creation this building was considered a miracle and the Prague citizens were so afraid that master Hanuš, who designed it, might construct the same clock- or even better- for another city that they came to his house when he was sleeping and pierced his eyes. Master Hanuš couldn't have designed another clock when he was blind. But he decided to take revenge, went inside the Orloj and stopped the mechanism. It took decades until someone repaired it again.





The dominant of the Old Town Square is the statue of Master Jan Hus, the religious reformer (he was a teacher at my university! ^^).


Then we went to the library to register. There is a famous tower of books with mirrors so when you look into it it looks like an endless literary tunnel :)



What I love about these big historical cities is that there is always live music. We listened for example to these guys who played medieval music

Or to these guys with... didgeridoo? (tell me if I'm wrong :))

3 comments:

  1. Those are definitely didgeridoo's :-) How amazing! And I love, love, love that book tower - I want one in my house. Prague is so beautiful and the buildings are gorgeous. I am glad Aussie got to see more of your lovely homeland.

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  2. When you go behind the church in the first photo, there is a building from the 14th century called Karolinum- it is one of the oldest university dormitories in the world (Charles University is the 18th oldest university) and nowadays it works as the Charles University ceremonial hall. I've just came back from matriculation which took place there. I wish I could take Aussie with me, it was FANTASTIC. The beautiful gothic architecture, medieval atmosphere, the representatives dressed in the same vestments that were used in the 14th century, Gaudeamus Igitur, the ceremonial sceptre... This was one of the strongest experience in my life. Beautiful :)

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  3. And by the way, I've never heard a didgeridoo before and the sounds are so cool! :)

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