After touring the Wallenstein Gardens, our Gate1 tour group made its way to Malá Strana Square. Malá Strana literally means “little side” in Czech, but this is more loosely translated as “Lesser Town.” It was originally a separate municipality, founded by King Ottokar II in 1257. Malá Strana Square is the old marketplace and the center of the district.
Dominating the square is the Church of St. Nicholas (Kostel svatého Mikuláše), an 18th-century Baroque edifice which is the masterpiece of the Bavarian architect Christoph Dientzenhofer and his son Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer. Construction was begun in 1703 and finished in 1752 with the completion of the dome and bell tower. During the communist era, the security police used the bell tower as an observation post from which to keep tabs on the nearby embassies of the USA and other countries.
From Malá Strana Square, we headed south on Karmelitská Street, passing several inviting cafes and beer halls which I would have loved to try if there had been time. There was also a Subway sandwich shop, one of several I saw in Prague, and I could not help but marvel at how pervasive American influence has become there; many of the signs, such as the “House For Sale” sign on one building we encountered, are in both Czech and English.
As we traipsed south along Karmelitská Street, we came to an inconspicuous archway, through which our guide led us to an elongated courtyard. This was the entrance to the Vrtba Garden, one of several High Baroque gardens situated on the slopes of Petřín Hill in Malá Strana. The courtyard belongs to a company named Casus Direct Mail, which as the name implies is primarily engaged in postal and printing services but also has diversified into the operation and management of properties such as the Vrtba Garden. (Why the City of Prague, which owns the Vrtba Gardens, would have entrusted its operation to a mail services outfit is not clear to me.) The courtyard was graced with roses and other flowering plants and supervised by a black cat. In the middle of the courtyard there is an archway, on the top of which stands a statue of Atlas holding the world on his shoulders. Beyond the archway is a ticket booth and the entrance to the garden itself. Our schedule did not permit us to tour the garden, but we were able to get a good look at it from the courtyard. On the hill above the garden we could see the American flag waving from the embassy there. Like the Waldstein Garden, the Vrtba hosts a frescoed Sala Terrena, an aviary and a number of sculptures with classical motifs.
Continuing south on Karmelitská Street, we came to the Church of Our Lady Victorious and the Infant Jesus of Prague, also known as the Church of Our Lady of Victories (Kostel Panny Marie Vítězné). We were encouraged to enter the church, where services were in progress, and I was able to capture a few nice shots of both the interior and the exterior.
It was originally built in 1611 as a Lutheran church, but after the suppression of the Bohemian Revolt Emperor Ferdinand II transferred it to the Order of Discalced (barefoot) Carmelites. In 1628 Princess Polyxena von Lobkowicz donated a statue of the Infant Jesus holding a globus cruciger (orb and cross, a symbol of Christian authority) to the Carmelite order. The statue originated in Spain in the 16th century and had come into possession of the von Lobkowicz family through marriage. In 1631, during their first occupation of Prague, the Swedes plundered the Carmelite monastery and trashed the statue, but it was later recovered, restored and eventually placed in an alcove in the Church of Our Lady Victorious, where it has remained ever since. It has drawn devotees from all over the world; many copies of it have been made and exported to other countries.
Turning the corner from Karmelitská onto Prokopská Street, we passed the Napa Bar and Gallery and shortly found ourselves in Malta Square. There we found the Japanese and Danish Embassies, a venerable statue of John the Baptist created by the sculptor Ferdinand Maxmilián Brokoff (1688-1731), and several inviting eateries, including the Painters (U Malířů), which claims to have been established in 1543.
The main attraction on Malta Square, though, is the Commandery of the Order of the Knights of Malta on the east side of the square. The Knights of Malta originated in the First Crusade as a monastic brotherhood, the Sovereign Military Order of Hospitallers of Saint John, with a mission of caring for the sick as well as fighting for the faith. In time they evolved into a primarily military organization based on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean, taking its name as their own; but they also established outposts or “commanderies” in many countries throughout Europe, including Bohemia. In the 19th century they lost their stronghold in Malta, which came under British rule, but retained many of their properties in Europe.
In the 12th century the Commandery in Prague, founded by King Vaclav I, began building a Romanesque basilica in Malá Strana, as part of a fortified complex guarding the Judith bridge, a predecessor of the Charles Bridge across the Vltava River. A chain was installed nearby to control access to the bridge, so the basilica eventually became known as the Church of Our Lady under the Chain. Later the church was rebuilt in Gothic style, with twin towers, producing the façade we see today.
Next to the church stands the Grand Priory Palace, the Czech headquarters of the Knights of Malta, which nowadays operates Maltese Aid, a charitable organization providing services to the needy, especially to sick people, the disabled and the elderly.
In back of the Grand Priory complex is a small square, the Grand Priory Square (Velkopřevorské namestie), to which our guide led us next. On one side of the square is the French Embassy; on the other is the Lennon Wall.
In the 1960s, around the time of the time of reform known as the Prague Spring, which ended with the 1969 Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, people began writing poems and short messages criticizing the Communist government on what was then an ordinary wall in a secluded area. In 1980, after the assassination of John Lennon, an anonymous artist painted a portrait of Lennon on the wall and added some of the Beatles’ lyrics, and it then became known as the Lennon wall. It was a source of considerable irritation and embarrassment to the Communist regime, which tried repeatedly to paint over the graffiti and prevent people from writing on it, but to no avail; students and others continued to use the wall as a forum for protest and anti-regime agitation. Since the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989, the Lennon Wall has continued to function as an open-air gallery and has become a major tourist attraction as well. In recent years chaos and vandalism have increased to the extent that the Knights of Malta, who own the wall, have had to take measures to mitigate abuse, such as prohibiting the use of spray cans, limiting marking to the use of pencil, markers and chalk, and monitoring the wall to prevent vandalism.
From the Lennon Wall, we set out for the Charles Bridge nearby. To get to it we had to cross the Čertovka, a narrow inlet branching off from the Vltava River. Next to the little bridge over the Čertovka is a large water wheel, 8 meters in diameter, and on the platform holding the water wheel in place sits a curious figure smoking a pipe. This is a vodnik, which in Czech means “water man”, but is usually translated as “water demon.” But I prefer to translate it more succinctly as “troll.” This troll’s name was Kabourek. Czech water demons can be benevolent or mischievous, depending on circumstances; if they are treated with respect, they are usually benign.
After crossing the Čertovka, we came to a low-lying area next to the Charles Bridge, where the Wall Pub is located. This area is subject to flooding, and over the centuries the high-water levels of each flood have been inscribed on the wall of the Pub. The highest level was reached in 2002, when the entire first floor of the Pub was underwater and the water almost breached the second floor of the building.
The Wall Pub is only a few feet from the Charles Bridge, which is about 15 feet high at that point, and two flights of steps have been thoughtfully built on the side of the bridge so that one doesn’t have to go all the way back to the start of the bridge to cross the river. The Charles Bridge is one of the most iconic places in Prague, and it would be unthinkable not to visit it. That will be the subject of the next post.