In Prague::Art

I was lucky enough to travel to Prague this summer; my daughter was doing study abroad and the airfare came down enough and my parents gave us enough Holiday Inn points to make our rooms free, so we joined her at the end of her school session!  It was an amazingly beautiful and quick trip!  Today I'm going to share some art with you because it's so inspirational!  I think I'll have to break my trip into to posts, though, because there's so much!

The city of Prague is broken down into neighborhoods, and our hotel was in the Vysehrad section of the city.  Vysehrad is a historical fort city built in the 10th century on the Vltava River.  It's the home of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, and a cemetary that's the Czech version of  Pere LaChaise in Paris!

Many famous Czech artists are buried here, including Dvorak, Neruda, and Mucha. Franz Kafka, however, is buried in the New Jewish Cemetary, and we did not see his final resting place. 

Many of the roads in Prague are made of cobblestone, and the sidewalks are works of art themselves.

And of course, Kafka is everywhere! 

This apartment building on a street corner is apparently the birthplace of Franz Kafka, and the Café Kafka is on the bottom floor.

This statue is in the Josefov section of Prague, sculpted by Jaroslav Rona. 

This awesome piece of rotating art is by David Cerny - a kinetic sculpture by city hall in the Nove Mesto section of town.

An awesomely novel fact my daughter told me about - before the buildings had street numbers, the way to find what you were looking for was to look for little sculptures above the doorways!

We were also happy to explore enough to find the "Lennon Wall" located in Mala Strana - in brief, this wall was originally painted by Czech students unhappy with the communist regime.  The wall has undergone many changes during its' existence, and is still an active tourist attraction today! Please read the wiki link I provided, as it is quite interesting!

Well, I think that's enough for my first post on Prague.  In my next post, I'll take you to some amazingly beautiful buildings and show you more art!  Thanks for stopping by!

Susan Kennedy