other fragments of Prague history
Our courses are bushy in the city, a lot according to chance, a little according to the indications of the guides.
Three places with different destinies and dimensions.
One, almost secret, but nevertheless very visited is Josefov, the Jewish quarter , landlocked in the Old Town district.
A second within the Old Town shows little to be seen, but was that of a page in Czech history which has withdrawn its identity; it is around the Chapel of Bethlehem, the one where Jan Hu s preached.
A third, on the plateau north of the Vltava and east of the Hradcany district is the Hanavsky Pavilion , a more modern legacy of the European industrial revolution.
Prague, the Hussite founder interlude
Jan Hus
Jean Hus is a Catholic, theologian, preacher from Prague, of very modest origin and of great talent, who became rector of the University of Prague at the end of the 14th century.
He rebels against the stupor, corruption and gold of the bishops of his time, the very large Catholic clergy possessing much coveted property, and at the same time against the German clergy who hold Bohemia
He preaches, in the Chapel of Bethlehem, the return to the count, to purity, to the Gospel.
His struggle is precisely during the instability linked to the Great Western Schism where we see the appearance of up to 3 popes (!), With in particular the displacement of the seat of one of them from Rome to Avignon, the 3rd in Pisa.
Jan Hus is in any case a kind of precursor, quickly posthumous (for heresy, he was burned in public in Constance in 1415 and his ashes scattered), of the Reformation of Luther no less than a century later.
His death arouses great indignation in Bohemia and an insurrection which leads in particular to the "defenestration of Prague" in 1419 from several imperial advisers (representatives in Prague of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Sigismund I, also king of Bohemia).
In the process, the conqueror hussites the Bohemia; but two factions, one extremist, the other moderate, separate.
In 1436, the moderate faction finally approached Catholics with whom she concludes an agreement that puts an end to the "Hussite wars".
The Czechs made Jan Hus a national hero icon independence and the Czech language, fighter Catholic, Imperial and German oppression.
What remains of this period remains in the Old City, with the Chapel of Bethlehem. There he came to preach. As soon as it was taken over by the Catholics, it fell to the Jesuits, then was razed in 1786.
After Czech independence, to honor their hero, it was rebuilt as close as possible to what it was. Its interior walls bear original frescoes from the Hussite period.
A modest, passionate ... and French-speaking guide (rarity) introduces us to the place.
In the center of the Old Town Square, between a certain number of baroque facades, a monument represents it in majesty.
When, in the second part of the 16th century, the Habsburgs resume Bohemia, the Counter-Reformation look for to demonstrate by all means Catholic supremacy. The religious buildings, as we have seen, are overflowing with gold, silver and marble.
Jean Hus would have survived would have had only one wish, to throw himself, this time of himself into the stake.
Prague, the Jewish quarter (Josefov)
As in many other European metropolises, the history of the Jewish presence is old.
10th century : two first Jewish colonies settle (1st document written by a Jewish merchant from Toledo).
1096 : first pogrom (1) during the first crusade ; the Jews are concentrated in a closed neighborhood.
Early 12th century : a third colony comes, and creates an autonomous Jewish city, adjoining Prague.
1292 : the king Ottokar II of Bohemia allowed a statute of administrative autonomy for the Jewish community.
1389 : new and very bloody pogrom where more than 3000 Jews are massacred during the Passover .
Middle ages : two other communities come, that of the Jews of the Byzantine Empire and that of the Jews of the West, uniting in the face of growing discrimination.
16th century : Jews in Prague must wear a yellow star ; or else convert to Christianity in order to survive.
End of 16th century : the ghetto (2) enjoyed great prosperity under the reign of King Rudolf II.
Mordechai Meisel , mayor of the wealthy Jewish quarter becomes Minister of Finance. We owe him, among other things, the synagogue that bears his name.
At that time, the rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel creates the myth of Golem .
17th century : King Ferdinand III thanks the Jews for their active participation in the defense of Prague against the Swedes.
In the autonomous ghetto, the community lives crowded. The neighborhood is dark, unsanitary, conducive to fires and the spread of disease.
1781 : the emperor Joseph II emancipates the Jews by a " edict of tolerance "
1850 : the district is famous Josefstadt, in tribute to Joseph II . The period of repression ends.
Late 19th century : the Jewish city (the ghetto) loses its autonomy and becomes Josefov, fifth integrated district in Prague.
From 1893 to 1913 : part of the district is demolished to clean up the city, inspired by the work of Haussmann in Paris. We open a south-north artery (avenue de Paris), new boulevards, widens alleys, builds bourgeois houses in place of old dwellings. It is from there that it takes its current aspect.
Second World War : the Jewish community of Prague is decimated, deported to the Nazi ghettos, the Terezin camp, near Prague, and the extermination camps. The Nazis want to make Josefov an "exotic museum of an extinct race". They bring back objects looted from synagogues all over Central Europe to be exhibited here. Some of them form the basis of the collections of the Jewish Museum in Prague .
Communist period : in the 50s and 60s, many survivors still had to leave Prague to flee the waves of anti-Semites.
(1) pogrom = massacre and looting of Jews by the rest of the population often encouraged by the government
(2) ghetto = the term ghetto originally designates a district reserved, even imposed on Jews , and where they can live according to their particular laws and customs in the midst of foreign peoples. The origin is the Venetian word " foundry », The abandoned place around which gathered the Jews of Venice.
In this now discreet place, which we suspect was secret, and even miserable and sordid at the beginning of the 20th century (see " Cultural Guide of the Jews of Europe "), Below Avenue de Paris, there is a sort of climate of meditation, a relative serenity, compared to the noisy flows of tourists from the Place de la Vieille-Ville, for example.
some synagogogues
Whatever the religion, places of worship tell local history and culture.
In fact, it is a few synagogues in the district, often also a museum, and the remarkable and dense cemetery that mark the memory, that of the tourist and that of the history of Czech Jews.
The Spanish synagogue (1687), very famous for its interior decoration could not be visited.
Opposite is the building of the "Jewish Museum".
A surprising statue in memory of Kafka (the Kafka Memorial) is placed in its immediate vicinity.
However, for the ordinary tourist, the most spectacular is outside the Jewish quarter: it is the "Jerusalem" synagogue, because it is located in the street of the same name.
But it is actually called the "Jubilee Synagogue", because it was built around 1906 to celebrate "the integration of Jews into Prague society". No longer in the Old Town but in the New Town, it was intended to replace three small old synagogues in the Old Town.
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Having notably visited the Alhambra in Granada and some other jewels of Andalusia, it irresistibly evokes the superb Arab-Andalusian style, in which are added in a very successful way Art Nouveau decorations from the time of its construction.
But here, rococo, with warm and vibrant colors. A rococo of enthusiasm, exaltation of free and beautiful variations on the theme of Arab-Andalusian architecture.
Even to the point that, curiously, the Star of David, with 6 branches, is almost discreet compared to the abundant pattern of the octagon and the star with 8 branches of Islamic art.
Incredible and unimaginable wedding in our present time.
Should Islamic art have seduced the architects of this place and time - a question of fashion? - so that it takes precedence over the Jewish religious context in this way. Astonishing and captivating.
Josefov cemetery
But perhaps the most touching thing about Josefov is his cemetery.
The play of light under the maples and ash trees, on the multitude of upright tombstones, awkwardly planted in the ground, gathered there on a confined perimeter is a shortcut of centuries (the graves of all the inhabitants over more than 300 years).
Because it is one of the oldest Jewish necropolises in Europe (1st half of the 15th century). The oldest stele (the poet and scholar Abigdor Karo) is from 1439; the most recent are from 1787 before the imperial decree of Joseph II banning burials in the city center.
Towards the end of the 16th century, we add the inscription of symbols and coats of arms in relief of families (a raised hand, a watering can, a musical instrument, animal symbols, tools, etc.), professions, or Jewish tradition (grape de vine, boxes, Star of David…).
The inscriptions also recall facts from the life of the deceased with the date of death expressed in Hebrew numeration.
In the Baroque period, small buildings with 4 walls called " tumbas ”are erected ; for example that of Mordechai Maisel, patron and magistrate of the Community.
But the number of buried bodies is much greater than the number of standing stones and graves. The Jewish tradition prohibiting the removal of old graves, over time the land quickly becomes insufficient.
In the absence of surface extension (limited to some 85 at 95 ares), we will accumulate the levels with the addition of new layers of soil.
Most of the stones that end up buried are unearthed and replanted on the surface, one next to the other.
Other wooden graves are destroyed.
The effect is that of a bulk which could suggest haste, even panic, in any case a sort of disorder like that of a poorly organized marble storage; when it probably didn't.
In any case, a feeling dark and oppressive when the density is high, somewhere else bucolic and peaceful when it relaxes, without any particular congestion of marked paths, in this season.
Around 12,000 tombstones are thus piled up, entangled in this confined space. And some speak of a number of 60 000 accumulated deceased, on 3 to 4 levels, but in places up to 12 levels.
Prague, a remnant of a modernist exhibition
On the Letna Park plateau, east of the Hradcany district and precisely in the axis of the Vltava, stands the beautiful Hanavsky pavilion, today a luxury restaurant,
