Infant Jesus of Prague

Infant Jesus of Prague (Pražské Jezulátko) is a 16th century Roman Catholic wax statue of child Jesus located in the Church of Our Lady Victorious in Malá Strana. Pious legends claim that the statue once belonged to Saint Teresa of Avila and allegedly holds miraculous powers, especially among expectant mothers.

The Petřín Lookout Tower

The Petřín Lookout Tower (Petřínská rozhledna) is a 60 metre high steel framework tower in Prague, which strongly resembles the Eiffel Tower, in Paris. Although it is much shorter than the Eiffel Tower, it stands atop a sizable hill, Petřín, so the top is actually at a higher altitude than that of the Eiffel Tower. The Petřínská rozhledna was built in 1891 and was used as an observation tower as well as a transmission tower. Today the Petřínská rozhledna is a major tourist attraction. If you go up the hard way, the hill is roughly a half-hour walk up paths that get quite slippery when it snows, and the tower is a shorter but fairly tiring climb; however, the hill is served by a frequent funicular and the tower has an elevator for disabled persons.

OLD JEWISH CEMETERY

Jews are believed to have settled in Prague as early as the 10th century. The first pogrom was in 1096 (the first crusade) and eventually they were concentrated within a walled Ghetto. In 1262 Přemysl Otakar II issued a Statuta Judaeorum which granted the community a degree of self administration. In 1389 one of the worst pogroms saw some 1,500 massacred at Easter Sunday. The ghetto was most prosperous towards the end of the 16th century when the Jewish Mayor, Mordecai Maisel, became the Minister of Finance and a very wealthy man. His money helped develop the ghetto. Around this time the Maharal was supposed to create the Golem.

In 1850 the quarter was renamed "Josefstadt" (Joseph's City) after Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor who emancipated Jews with the Toleration Edict in 1781. Two years before Jews were allowed to settle outside of the city, so the share of the Jewish population in Josefov decreased, while only orthodox and poor Jews remained living there.

Most of the quarter was demolished between 1893 and 1913 as part of an initiative to model the city on Paris.

Franz KAFKA

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century. The term "Kafkaesque" has become part of the English language.

Kafka was born to middle class German-speaking Jewish parents in Prague, Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The house in which he was born, on the Old Town Square next to Prague's Church of St Nicholas, now contains a permanent exhibition devoted to the author.

Most of Kafka's writing, including the large body of his unfinished work, was published posthumously.

His more famous works:

Novellas

The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung, November – December 1915)

Novels

The Trial (Der Prozeß, 1925)
The Castle (Das Schloß, 1926)
Amerika (Amerika or Der Verschollene, 1927)

Alfons MUCHA

Alfons Mucha (1860-1939) was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist, known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs.






Maud Adams as Joan of Arc, 1909

U Fleků

The U Fleků restaurant is the oldest and the most famous beerhouse in Prague. Both the beerhouse and the adjoining pub were established in 1499. The "U Fleku" beerhouse won its fame thanks to its own brewed 13° special bock beer. The pemises of this traditional beerhouse include the beer garden, brewery museum as well as the legendary Old-Prague Cabaret. The restaurant offers over 1200 seats and is looking forward to your visit.

Jan Neruda

Jan Nepomuk Neruda (1834 – 1891) was a Czech journalist, writer and poet, one of the most prominent representatives of Czech Realism and a member of "the May school".


Early life

Jan Neruda was born in Prague, son of a small grocer who lived in the Malá Strana (Lesser Quarter) district of Prague. After studying philosophy and philology, he worked as a teacher until 1860, when he became a freelance journalist and writer.

Career

In his work Neruda promoted the idea of rebirth of Czech patriotism. He participated in all the central cultural and political struggles of his generation, and gained a reputation as a sensitive critic.

Neruda was known for his satirical depiction of the petty bourgeois of Prague. His most popular prose work is "Povídky malostranské" (1877, Tales of the Little Side), a collection of short stories. Neruda's stories take the reader to the Lesser Quarter, to its streets and yards, shops, churches, houses, and restaurants.

Death

He died in 1891 and was interred in the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague. After his death, one of the streets in Lesser Quarter (Ostruhová Street well-known from his books), now Nerudova ulice (Neruda Street), was named after him.


Homage

The Chilean poet Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto (Pablo Neruda), who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971, took his pseudonym after Jan Neruda.