Prague, touristic-cultural patchwork
and other originalities
It would be futile and tedious to want to restore all of Prague's cultural life, so rich and diverse.
Without not citing, but necessarily too quickly in the literary field, the essential Kafka, and the very French-speaking Milan Kundera.
Prague, the city of a hundred daily concerts
The Prague musical tradition is old and high level. For the record, the polka comes from traditional Bohemian music.
Besides the great Czech composers of the 19th century, Smetana, Dvorak, Janacek, ... for so-called "classical" music, Prague, hospitable and seductive Already attracted by its pomp, especially in the Baroque and Romantic times, the greatest European geniuses, who stayed there willingly, sometimes with delight.
Mozart and Beethoven are familiar hosts to him, but also Weber, Paganini, Listz, Berlioz ....
Already worshiped after the "Marriage of Figaro" whose Prague population sings airs in the street, which delighted him, Mozart created his opera Don Giovanni on order from the city in 1787; it is a huge success there.
Its notoriety is such that more than 4000 people take part in the church St-Nicolas of the "Small side" in a farewell ceremony after its death at the end of 1791. Some say that his shadow still roams the alleys of the Pohorelec district.
Opposite his bust, Roman emperor style, in the small Klementinum museum, before entering the "chapel of mirrors".
Beethoven settled in Prague and composed there between 1796 and 1798, in the "Petit Côté" district. The building he lived in became emphatically the "Beethoven Palace"; the throne his bust, already grumpy.
At the foot of the castle, he may have frequented the shop of a famous luthier.
Born in 1841 in a village on the Vltava some 15 km downstream, Dvorak composed in his house in Prague in front of a portrait of Beethoven.
A beautiful full-length statue stands in front of the Rudolfinum Concert Hall in front of the Mansesuv Bridge, downstream north of the Charles Bridge.
It is in this neo-Renaissance building from 1884 that the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra performed in 1896 for the first time under the baton of Anton Dvorak, all freshly returned from a 4-year stay in the New World (there he composed his famous symphony).
On the forecourt terrace of the Rudolfinum a curious and very original ballet was held that day which mixed the disabled twirling on agile wheelchairs and other dancers.
On the right bank of the Vltava at the end of Charles Bridge stands the Smetana Museum, in honor of another local composer who extolled Czech nationalism.
Prague is famous for its numerous afternoon and evening concerts, where, for 20 to 40 €, it is possible to hear classical standards (the Four Seasons, the waves of Moldau -la Vltava-, Ravel's bolero, another movement from a Mozart concerto, a bit of Dvorak, a toccata of Bach or the famous Canon of Pachelbel ...,) interpreted by small orchestras very professionals.
Each does not last more than 90 minutes, but always in a framework remarkable, often the luxury of a case.
Thus, we were able to attend with pleasure a concert in the great hall Smetana of the Municipal House, and another in the "chapel of mirrors" of the Klementinum, where Mozart would have played.
Relaxed atmosphere, very good child, even if some adorn themselves a little for the occasion.
Sparse rooms, since the offer is numerous; even in July.
Smetana Room
Chapel of Mirrors
Prague Folk Festival 2019
Chance crossed our last day of visit with the first day of the 12th "International Meeting of Folk Groups" from Central Europe (in the broad sense since Scandinavian countries participated) from July 19 to 22.
The opportunity to attend in the city traditional dances and songs of all kinds, to rub shoulders with a large number of participants dressed in the old-fashioned way, in costumes that fit them like a second skin, happy and smiling, proud to display an identity that only they know.
And three short examples:
Prague, transport ... and eccentricities
The city's capacity for seduction makes it, at least as much as Paris, one of the world's sought-after places for their romanticism, or at least what many put behind this adulterated term.
So we come to take pictures in clothes wedding, sometimes in stretched sedans whose interior is a long padded corridor, a kind of hot dog giant on wheels, other times in a quirky and fun way.
On the square of the old Town Hall
In a room at the Hôtal de Ville, blissful and agreed-upon shooting
In front of the "John Lennon" wall, also called the "Freedom wall", which has become a living work of art, and which surrounds a garden belonging to the Order of Malta, opposite the French embassy, in the "Petit Côté" .
You can visit the city in old vehicles with furnished grille, certainly reproductions or beautiful restorations, of which in any case the engine is modern; but you can also do it in a horse-drawn carriage, on foot, sometimes in an eccentric and amusing way.
By the way, if the car brand Skoda is very present in Prague, the reason is obvious: it is THE Czech automobile brand. Absorbed in the VW group since 1991 (to the detriment of the other potential buyer, Renault), it produced its first production cars from 1926.
The metro, the multiple lines of the picturesque tram and buses form a practical, fast network.
Built before the fall of the Berlin Wall between 1960 and 1974, the metro, still modern, is sometimes to the glory of the Soviet stars of the past; it is said that its spacious resorts are inspired by the splendours of their Moscow counterparts, but in more sober.
They often lead to commercial complexes quite similar to ours, but which do not exude the search for luxury, except in certain parts. of the New Town.
The tram runs smoothly alongside fairly fast traffic but which seems fluid, which only slows down, like everywhere else, only at the usual times of going to and returning from work.
From everywhere, its lines scrape without derailing, cross avenues and streets, The heavy wagons make the ground vibrate silently, creak in dry curves ; to the point that the massive metal wheels push back the shiny steel of the rails, the arched segments of which must be renewed there frequently. Without being able, in the intertwining of major crossroads, to understand how the switches work.
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Few cyclists, even if this type of traffic is developing with the establishment of reserved lanes.
But the overall limited size of the historic city also allows walkers to better savor the original nooks and crannies.
Prague, medley, ... but not too much
For the rest and without any vain claim to completeness, here is a mosaic, rather a medley, collected along the paths, where we come across very modern sculptures, a local specialty, and some other peculiarities.
Huge babies, group dancing and playing, child reading, gradual appearance of gaunt beings like zombies in inexorable movement, all have a disturbing common point: no face, or masked face.