Sep 19 2008
Old Is New and New Is Old… and Prague Is Still Crowded
I spent the morning on one of the best museum trips I’ve ever taken. In Prague’s old town, there is a Jewish Quarter. There are at least five synagogues within a stone’s throw from each other, and a massive, yet tiny, cemetary that was quite impressive. I’ll get back to that seemingly oxymoronic comment in a second.
For 480 Czech Crowns (at yesterday’s close, that’s US$28.25) I bought a single ticket that gave me entrance to five synagogues, the Old Jewish Cemetary, a Ceremonial Hall and the Gallery of Robert Guttmann.
These sites were extremely crowded, but the attendants were very helpful in moving folks along, and every artifact was clearly explained in Czech and English. And Hebrew, in some instances. But let me get back to that comment for a minute.
The Old Jewish Cemetary is one of the most important sites on the ticket. It was established in the beginning of the 15th century and the oldest gravestone is that of Avigdor Kara from 1439. The whole area was less than the size of a football field, but has more than 12,000 gravemarkers.
Experts say that there are many more graves than gravestone in this cemetary, though. As the area was “expanded”, the residents brought in more dirt, and the new graves were layered overtop the old ones. Now, the top of layer is more than 15 feet higher than the street level.
It was one of the most haunting and interesting moments on the tour.
Another interesting sight was the Spanish Synagogue. The temple was inspired by Moorish design and was built in 1868. Rich wood panelling is gilded and painted withflowing designs and deep reds and blues. It made me catch my breath.
This synagogue is the youngest of the five, but it was built on the foundation of the oldest Prague Jewish hous of prayer, called simply, the “Old School”.
When the Germans invaded in the beginning of the Second World War, an interesting thing happened. The Nazi’s “spared” most of the Jewish buildings and artifacts from the original museum founded in 1906. While they deported and killed tens of thousand of Jews from the area, the Nazi’s brought in Jewish artifacts from communities in the surrounding areas of Bohemia and Moravia.
They wanted to make a museum for an “extinct race.” Disgusting…
But today, people from all over the world get to see this rich history and culture so lovingly cared for by the Jewish Museum in Prague.
And I do mean from around the world. Other tours that crowded around me were given in Italian, Spanish, Russian, German and English. A large number of school-aged kids were there, too.
That’s a great image of the whole of Prague… Everything is so old and gothicand absolutely beautiful. And then you have gaggles of hip teenagers with funky hair cuts and backpacks listening to iPods outside of museums.
It seems almost bipolar, but it fits incredibly well with the feel of the city.
Folks are busy, and locals stream through crowds of tourists, not caring if they bump into you, or ruin your perfect picture. “Deal with it” seems to be the attitude. And yet, everyone here is so vibrant and nearly everyone - except for the wide-eyed tourists - knows exactly where they’re going.
Prague is certainly a jewel of the ex-Bloc states, and it’s charging into the 21st century at the speed of a Generation Y handheld-music-phone-web-trendy electronic device… Weird band sticker not included.
