Prague Old Town

Today is the official start of our tour. We divide up into our groups and meet our program directors this morning, the go for a tour of the Old Town Prague.

We pass by the Prague Opera House on the way from the hotel to the old town.

You can see the Powder Tower on the left side of the photo covered by scaffolding as it undergoes restoration.

This sculpture is a precursor to the Cloak of Conscience by the same Czech artist.

It sits outside the Estates Theater where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni in October 1787.

There are painted buildings in the old town area.

There are also carved decorations on some buildings.

The story of the Golem of Prague tells that Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel created a Golem to protect the jewish ghetto in Prague. This statue is on the corner of the New Town Hall.

We passed by this pub near a bunch of shops that had an entertaining advertisement.

The House at the Minute is attached to the back side of old town hall. It had sgraffitoes painted on it starting in the late 1500s. They were later covered up and discovered in the early 1900s during a restoration.

The tour ends at the Astronomical Clock on the side of the old town hall where we watch the show on the hour.

The old town hall is on the old town square, there is a statue of Jan Hus in the square.

The Lady of Tyne church is just off the square opposite the old town hall. It’s behind a building.

Lunch is on our own. We eat at the café run by Bethlehem Chapel before touring the chapel. The current building is a modern reconstruction. This is where the protestant reformer Jan Hus preached starting in 1402.

A painting of Jesus casting out the Money Changers is an appropriate painting for a church tied to the Reformation.

In a small upstairs museum, there are exhibits about the Protestant Reformation and the role that Jan Hus played in it.

In Prague, many churches hold classical music concerts to raise funds. We saw the concert program outside St. Giles and chose it because it was a bit earlier, so we could still make the group welcome dinner tonight.