Prague´s Attractions (continuation)

Historically the most important route of a town historical area that intersects city from the east towards the west. First of all  the Route received its name because in a past connected two seats of the Czech kings and it was used for the coronation processions and ceremonial gateways of the rulers. The Route starts by Powder Gate and continues along Celetná street through the Old Town Square, Karlova street, Charles Bridge, Mostecká street to Malostranské Square and from here continues through Nerudova street and Ke Hradu street to Prague Castle. The last one king from the Habsburg dynasty who has been crown to the Czech king was Ferdinand V. called benevolent in 1836.

One of the most known exhibit in a building of the Museum of the City of Prague. It is a plastic model of Prague which has been created by Antonín Langweil in the first half of the 19th century. In 1822 he became a servant in the University library. In 1826 he saw the exhibition of a plastic model of Paris. Langweil was delighted at it and decided to create a similar model of Prague. Within three years he achieved to make about 600 houses of the Old Town, he completed the Old Town churches, Jewish Town, Lesser Town and Hradčany. His work represents historical model of Prague in a ratio scale 1:432 covering area of 20 m2. It is not only tourist attraction but first of all irreplaceable educational material.

It is one of the attractions which was built in 1891 on the occasion of the Provincial Jubilee Exhibition. At the beginning the Funicular operated on a water drive. The Funicular operated untill 1914. In 1932 the Funicular recieved an electric drive. The Funicular run untill 1965 when a part of underflooding Petřín hill break away and deformed  a railway. Costly reconstruction then started between 1983-85. Then operation was renewed again and reconstructed machine unit from 1932 is used again. Capacity of the Funicular is 1400 persons per hour and it takes aprox.3 minutes to get to a hill.

The Fair already starts at the end of February and lasts until the beginning of April. It is a symbol of incoming Spring. Today it is a show of a supermodern entertaiment attractions for children, earlier it had a character of a rustic entertainment. A history of the Matějská Fair goes back to the second half of the 18th century and within calendar year it was the first one. The Fair is held on the territory of an areal called "Výstaviště".

Planetarium

One of Prague´s attributes is a "hundred-spired". A father of this name was a mathematician, physicist and religious thinker Bernard Bolzano who at the beginning of the 19th century counted 103 towers in Prague. The oldest surviving tower on the territory of Prague is the Black Tower which is a part of Prague Castle fortification and comes from a first half of the 12th century. Approximately at the same time two tovers  in a frontage of the Basilica of St.George obtained  today´s appearance.

The Prague Sun is the most valuable object in a collection of the Loreto treasure. It is  so called  a diamond monstrance of a sun shape made of a high gilded silver from 1699. It weights over 12 kg and it is decorated by 6222 diamonds. The monstrance was created by a Viennese architect active in Prague, Jan Bernard Fischer from Erlach. Basis of the monstrance is a rock on which stays a figure of  the Virgin Mary in a dynamic excited movement with a crown made of rays above her head.

The Prague Turk is artistically the most valuable and admired Baroque sculpture on the Charles Bridge. It is a work of Ferdinand Maxmilián Brokof from 1714. The Sculpture represents St.John of Matha, Felix of Valois and Ivan. It was made on the order of a count Thurn to honour the Trinitarian Order, whose first two saints were founders. The Trinitarians ransomed the captured Christians from a Turkish captivity. It is mainly symbolized by a scene at the bottom of the Sculpture. A prison countersunk into a rock  is  symbolized  here  and  in front of it a dog and Turk with the quirts and a curved sword guard an imprisoned Christians.

A very broken relief of the capital city already made a necessity of a building of many stairways  the centuries ago. They were built on the places where steeply rising slope didn´t allow a construction of a classical street. One of the oldest stairways are the New Castle Steps. They starts in Thunovská street and empty into Hradčany Square on the edge of the Castle ramp. They have 209 stairs. Very famous are the Old Castle Steps leading from Klárov to an easter gate under the Black Tower. They have 101 stairs. The longest steps in Prague are the steps leading from Vlašská street in Malá Strana upwards to Petřín hill. They have 306 stairs.

The Astronomical Clock

The Astronomical Clock is the biggest Prague´s attraction. It was created by master Mikuláš of Kadaň in 1410. He was a clockmaker at the court of Wenceslas IV. As only one horologe in the world it displays the Babylonian time. In 1490 master Hanuš then improved machinery and  between 1553-60 it was again improved by Jan Táborský. Between 1692-1787 and then even a long time in the 19th century the Horologe was not function. Today´s appearance the Horologe obtained in 1865 during  a big reconstruction. Within the  Prague Uprising in May 1945 the Old Town Hall burnt down, the Horologe was also sorely damaged but it was successfully reconstructed. The statues are a work of Josef Sucharda from 1948, they replaced the older ones from 1864, which burnt down within the May Uprising. The Horologe with a clock-face is a soul of the whole mechanism. A hand with a sun showing hours in a  fact clocks three different times. The first one is so called the Old Czech time which is marked by an external dial with the medieval Arabic figures. The Present time is shown on a dial with the Roman figures. The third one is the Babylonian time that a  period of a daily light divided by 12 hours representing a visible part of a sky. The Horologe shows even a movement of the Sun and Moon throughout of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. At a bottom part there is the Calendar from 1865, a rotary disk with twelve circular pictures symbolizing the individual months. It was created by Josef Mánes.

The Prague Observatory on Petřín hill originated between 1927-28. Here the public has an opportunity to observe  the space orbs and all sorts of the phenomenons on a  night sky. The Observatory is very well equipped. Storeyed building has three cupolas, in  the main cupola with a diameter 7,5 m there is situated the Zeiss refractor that enlarges an image of the space orbs up to 680 times, there is a coronograph above it designated for a study of the Solar disk. In the western cupola was installed a refractor with a diameter 5 metres for a daily observation of the Sun, enlarging up to 225 times, and in the eastern cupola there is a refractor with whom it is possible to observe comets and radiant nebulosity, it  enlarges up to 110 times.

It is is the longest one and the most famous Czech river. Vltava is a part of Prague similary as  Prague Castle or Vyšehrad. Prague is evidently called  after her, more precisely speaking after the stone thresholds in her watercourse. Vltava is 430,2 m long and springs from Šumava deep forests below the Black Mount on the Czech - Bavarian border. Vltava flows through the capital city with a lenght of 30,9 km. The largest width has on the territory of the Štítkovský weir- 330 m, the smallest width has in the Modřany gut - 40m. A natural deep of a river way is 3 and 4 metres.Vltava melts into Labe near Mělník. A section from Prague along a stream up to Mělník is a navigable stream for the  vessels with a weight 1000 tons. The building of Vltava cascades from Lipno to Vrané otherwise caused a coldness of Vltava water and it is not too suitable for a bathing. But on the other hand it helped to water pollution so that in a water you can find many kinds of fish including trouts.

Area of "Výstaviště" with an extend of 40 ha was modified from the eastern part of the Royal Park for the needs of  the Municipal Jubilee Exhibition in 1891. "Výstaviště" today is used for the different social, cultural and sporting events, and  the traditional Matějský Fair is held here. At the entrance part of "Výstaviště" there is the Pavilion of the Capital City of Prague rebuilt in a Neorenaissance - Neobaroque style , today  it is  used as the Stone Collection of the National Museum and opposite it there is a Neorenaissance building of the Academy of Fine Arts. From other buldings it is necessary to mention sporting hall Paegas Arena from 1961-65, ice-pool and swimming-pool, Křižík´s pavilions with a moder fountain and stage used for an effective show under open air and others.

The Lane is a very picturesque and one of the most visited corners of Prague and Prague Castle. The Lane originated in the course of  a building of the nothern fortification of the Castle during a reign of king Vladislav Jagiello at the end of the 15th century. In 1597 emperor Rudolf II. decided to give this area that is close to an internal side of the Castle wall to a disposal of the Castle shooters to build here their houses. In this period 24 houses were built with miniature cells where the Castle shooters lived together with their families. In 1657 only 14 houses remained. Gradually craftsmen, clerks, bellringers, flunkies and others started to live here. In the 19th century here lived the artists, odd fish, Prague poor people and even people of a half-world. In 1917 in the house No.22 shortly lived a writer Franz Kafka. According to the legends during a reign of the emperor Rudolf II. the alchemists trying to find a secret of a gold production lived here.