Last Address Memorials If you enjoyed reading the story behind the Prague Stumble Stones then you might also be inspired by another growing international memorial to look out for called the Last Address. Whereas the Stumble Stones are embedded in the ground outside the last freely chosen address of a person before being deported in … Read More
Prague Jewish Garden Not so fast, this is not some horticultural post about what grows in a Jewish garden. This relates to a cemetery close to Wenceslas Square that pre-dates the current Old Jewish Cemetery by 200 years and is recognised as the oldest Jewish burial ground in the country. In the mid-13th Century a … Read More
The Pig Farm Before you read this post you might like to get the necessary background by reading the Roma Internment in World War Two post. In 1992 an American journalist called Paul Polansky was in the regional Czech town of Trebon researching the 19th century emigration of Czechs to the USA and found that … Read More
Ivan Gončarenko Every now and again I start researching an apparently simple story which takes you in different unexpected directions. The story of a death of a soldier is not uncommon in Prague. It’s how he died, when and where, where he was buried then, where he’s buried now and how he came to be … Read More
Jan Hus Monument The period from 1850 to 1918 is known as the Czech National Revival. All aspects of “what it was to be Czech” from an ethnic, cultural, political and religious point of view were being investigated and highlighted. Famous Czechs of the past were being honoured and by the early 20th Century it … Read More
Bike to Heaven A 30 year-old man died in Prague on January 12th 2006. It did not make the national news but years later the unveiling of an artistically original memorial in Prague replayed the story, who he was, why he died and what the city did about it. This is the story of the … Read More
Prague 1890 Flood One of the memorials which caught my eye in the 8th District on the edge of Karlin where it meets Invalidovna has the names of 20 people and an abbreviation “Rak-UH 3 Pol.Praporu”. Well the Rak-UH was easily translated to “Austro-Hungarian” and with a bit of extra effort it was revealed to … Read More
Memento Mori Underneath the Nusle bridge in Prague is the Folimanka Park and in the park is a street lamp. At first glance it looks like many other street lamps until you notice that the light is pointing upwards not downwards. It is Memento Mori, the Memorial to the Nusle Bridge Suicides. Back in 2004 … Read More
Za Pravdu – Amazing Art There are many busts, statues, pictures, drawings and memorials in the city associated with Jan Hus. Probably the most striking of these is actually invisible for most of the year but if you are in Prague at a certain time of the year and you get good weather then make … Read More