While being shown around by our teacher we walked past Faust House. The Faust House, while it probably never housed Doctor Faust, was home to many eccentric people. It was originally a mansion owned by Prince Vaclav of Opava who was obsessed with alchemy and natural sciences. It was then passed on to an astronomer and [...]
Tag: historical sites
Ss Cyril and Methodius Church
Ss Cyril and Methodius Church is a baroque church in Prague that one of our teachers took us to. The church was a hiding spot for Czech parachutists during world war two after the assassination of Moravia Reinhard Heydrich, a high ranking German Nazi. They were betrayed, found and it turned into a gun fight in [...]
Kutná Hora and Sedlec Ossuary
One of our outings while in Prague was to Kutná Hora and Kostnice v Sedlci (the Sedlec Ossuary). We started our trip off at the Ossuary. An Ossuary is a final resting place for human skeletal remains. It's used when space is limited. The Sedlec Ossuary contains the remains an estimated amount of 40,000 people. Originally the [...]
The Astronomical Clock
The Astronomical Clock in Praha 1 is the worlds oldest working clocks. It is over 600 years old. The clock uses an astrolabe which predicts and locates the the sun, moon and stars and determines the time. There is a a golden sun that tells the time and a moon that tells the lunar phase. [...]
Prašná Brána: The Powder Tower
Prašná Brána or the Powder Tower is an important medieval monument in Prague near Old Town. It was built in 1475 by Matouš Rejsek. In the 17th/18th century it was used to hold gunpowder, which is where it name comes from. It is 65 meters/ 213 feet tall. The tower was an important gate that the [...]
Terezín
Part of our time in Prague included trips outside of the city. Our first trip was to Terezín, the Theresienstadt concentration camp. We took a bus out of the city from our hostel towards the camp. Our tour guide told us if we wanted to take any pictures inside the fortress we would have to pay, so [...]
Prague Castle
From the Sparta stop whenever we were going home or heading out we could see the Prague Castle in the distance. Occasionally if I was coming home late at night I would look out and see fire works going off over the castle. The Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world. It [...]