Culture in Prague - Prague Hotel Start

The cultural/social offering is so wide-ranging that Prague was selected as one of the European Cities of Culture for the year 2000. Among other features, the city’s territory is home to 81 museums, 108 art galleries, and 71 resident theatres and concert halls. Prague annually hosts major cultural events such as the Prague Spring music festival. The preserved complex of Jewish monuments on the territory of the former ghetto is the world’s unique heritage. The believers of most confessions will find their sanctuaries in Prague.

For short relaxation, there are the green areas of parks and forest parks, sports and leisure facilities, and other facilities such as botanical gardens, the zoological gardens, astronomical observatories and a planetarium. For longer lasting recreation, there are natural sites in the city’s immediate vicinity as well as the more distant areas. The offering is even wider thanks to relatively good transport connection with the main holiday resorts in the country.

Festivals

The best known Prague festival is undoubtedly the Prague Spring festival. Other annual festivals that promote usic of the best quality and choice include the Agharta Prague Jazz Festival, the international festival of music by Jewish composers Musica Iudaica, the International Festival of Student Orchestras, the International Festival of Brass Bands and the KHAMORO International Festival of Roma Music. The Summer Shakespearean Festivities at Prague Castle and the International Festival of Children’s Puppet Theatre are the most successful of the theatre festivals held in Prague. The City of Prague is also proud to support the Prague Dance international festival of contemporary dance, the Days of European Cinema film festival and the Prague Writers’ Festival as well as several festivals of alternative culture.

Arts and Architecture

Architects the world over bring their students to Prague to see its splendid architectural heritage. No other city boasts such a variety of architectural styles: Romanesque chapels, Gothic cathedrals and spires, dozens of churches and palaces in Baroque style, the Renaissance royal summer residence of Belvedere, the Rococo wonder of the Loreto Shrine and many more. The Municipal House and other buildings in the New Town constructed in Art Nouveau style are some of the prettiest in Prague. The House of the Black Madonna is the first Cubist building in the city. On the bank of the Vltava stands the recent construction of the Dancing House, a joint effort of the architects Milunič and Gehry and an intriguing addition to the surrounding Art Nouveau architecture. The National Gallery displays collections of Czech art since the old masters to 20th century art. Its collection of European art features among other works remarkable pieces by Dürer, El Greco, Rembrandt and the Dutch masters of the 17th century. Its sophisticated collection of French art includes fine examples of impressionism. The gallery also contains a remarkable representation of works by Pablo Picasso as well as some most recent modern art.

Churches

Churches and chapels are the pride of Prague, giving it its nickname of the ”city of a hundred spires”. St Vitus’ Cathedral that dominates Prague Castle is undoubtedly the most magnificent of them all. Work on the cathedral started in the 14th century in late Gothic style on the site of a Romanesque basilica. The construction continued over the centuries and was only completely finished at the beginning of the 20th century, acquiring attributes of Renaissance and Baroque design along the way. Another dominant feature of the Castle is the Romanesque St. George’s Basilica. Founded in the 10th century, the basilica is one of Prague’s oldest preserved churches. It was reconstructed several times and bears Gothic and Baroque features. The Gothic Church of Our Lady of Týn, an Old Town parish church since the 12th century, contains the tombstone of Tycho Brahe, the famous astronomer of Emperor Rudolf II. The facades and interiors of Prague’s many Baroque churches are heavily embellished. The Church of St. Nicholas in the Lesser Town is the most monumental and ornate of them. Visitors from around the world also crowd the nearby Church of Our Lady Victorious to see its celebrated wax exhibit, the Infant of Prague.

Jewish Heritage

The relics and records of the centuries-long history of Jewish Prague represent the best preserved Jewish monument in Europe. The former Jewish ghetto contains six synagogues, the most legendary of them being the Old-New Synagogue. This early Gothic construction from the end of the 13th century is the oldest preserved synagogue in Central Europe that still serves its purpose. The nearby Jewish Town Hall features two clocks: one with Roman numerals on the dial and another with Hebrew numerals and the hands going backwards. The small area of the Old Jewish Cemetery holds an incredible 12,000 tombstones the oldest of which dates back to 1439. The adjacent late Gothic Pinkas Synagogue with Renaissance additions serves as a memento of 80,000 Czech and Moravian victims of the Holocaust. The unique collections of Jewish heritage contained in the Pinkas Synagogue and other Jewish venues in Prague are in the care of the Jewish Museum.

Prominent Personalities

The most famous person currently associated with Prague is undoubtedly Franz Kafka. The Jewish German-writing author was born in Prague and is buried here as well. Dozens of important artists resided in Prague since Charles IV was king, including the Italian poet Petrarca and the painter Arcimboldo who lived in the city during the reign of Emperor Rudolf II together with astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler who were also in Rudolf’s employ. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart finished his opera Don Giovanni in Prague and himself conducted its opening at the Estates (then Nostic) Theatre. The best known Czech artists linked with Prague are the composers Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák, the author of famous Art Nouveau posters Alfons Mucha, the creator of the literary character of the ”Good Soldier Švejk ” Jaroslav Hašek, and the novelists Karel Čapek, Milan Kundera (who now lives in Paris) and Bohumil Hrabal.

University

The Charles University is the oldest higher education facility in Central Europe. It was named after its founder, Holy Roman Emperor and Czech King Charles IV who established the university by decree on 7 April, 1348. Originally containing four faculties (of liberal arts, medicine, law and theology), it grew over the centuries to include a dozen other faculties where future doctors, lawyers, teachers, philosophers and many other specialists-to-be in both science and the humanities study for their degrees. Prague also offers a variety of private and international based universities.

Klementinum

The Klementinum building is nowadays home to several of the Czech Republic’s central libraries, most importantly the National Library - the biggest research library in the country. The beginnings of the National Library date back to the year 1348 when the Charles University was established by decree. The National Library has occupied Klementinum since 1777 when the Jesuit order that owned the building was abolished and its monastery libraries were linked with the university library. Klementinum was originally a Dominican convent containing St. Clement’s Church. It was turned into a Jesuit college in 1556. The campus underwent a reconstruction in Baroque design between 1653–1722. A new St. Clement’s Church was built (1712–1715). In 1722 Klementinum became home to an observatory and later also to the theological and philosophical faculty of Prague’s university. Klementinum’s Baroque Mirror Chapel from 1663 serves as a concert and exhibition hall.

Museums

Would you like to know how Prague changed through the centuries or what means of transport people in Prague used back in 1886? You will find answers to all such questions in Prague’s two dozen museums. The National Museum, the biggest and oldest museum in the city (1818), documents the long and winding history of the Czech nation. It also features rich collections of mineralogical and paleontological finds as well as a zoological collection that boasts a 22-meter long skeleton of a whale. The Museum of Decorative Arts contains a unique collection of European and Czech-made glassware, chinaware, furniture, textiles, gold and silver ware and precious books. The most interesting exhibit at the Museum of the City of Prague is a paper, pasteboard and wood model of the city from 1826–1834. It documents how the city looked before a number of precious buildings in downtown Prague were demolished to allow for new construction. The Toy Museum at Prague Castle is the second biggest in the world.

National Monuments

The most important examples of the Czech culture heritage are pronounced national culture monuments. The most valuable of Prague’s national monuments is the Castle with the archaeological finds it contains. The Castle consists of a cathedral, several churches, a royal tomb, a royal seat, and of a number of towers and other buildings constructed in various designs and styles. The Castle’s St Vitus’ Cathedral is home to the Czech crown jewels consisting of the Royal Crown of Bohemia, a sceptre and an orb all made out of pure gold and officially protected by a papal bull of 1346. The ruin of Vyšehrad castle is another national monument. The castle was built in the 11th century with fortifications and a cemetery where many famous Czechs are buried. The Charles Bridge, the Old Town Square, Karolinum (the seat of the oldest Czech university), the Bethlehem chapel where the Protestant priest Jan Hus delivered sermons, the White Mountain, the Estates Theatre and the National Theatre, the National Museum and the Anežský Monastery all belong to the national monuments.