The Darth Vader Statue Long before George Lucas (1976 Star Wars director) was born, actually even before his father was born, a statue was erected in Prague and it looks a lot like Darth Vader so what’s going on? It’s another example of a mixture of fact and legend for which Prague is famous. To … Read More
Koruna Palace The Koruna Palace at the base of Wenceslas Square is not really a place you aim for but it’s a lovely place to walk through especially if you are an architecture fan. It was a commission by a Czech Insurance company and text on the upper part of the building still refers to … Read More
Exploring Prague’s Vyšehrad Cemetery It’s not normally on many people’s top ten list of things to do in Prague unless 1) you like cemeteries, 2) you like art/design and 3) you know something of Czech culture. But for some people a trip to the Vyšehrad Cemetery will be an interesting and rewarding experience. I’ll show … Read More
Prague Streets – Národní Národní or “National Street” was formed almost by accident. Back in the mid-13th Century a fortified wall surrounded the Old Town with a moat in front of the wall. Later the New Town would be defined as the area on the opposite side of that moat. The fortified wall stands there … Read More
Top Prague Attraction – Municipal House At the turn of the 20th Century the Austro-Hungarian Empire was weakening. In Prague you could see this with different architectural projects that incorporated very Nationalist and in our case, Slavic designs. The name “Municipal House” might lead you to think that this was going to be some grand … Read More
Famous Czechs – Alfons Mucha Alfons Mucha is one of the most famous Czechs but in a strange twist of fate if you look him up in Wikipedia you’ll find that although he was born just south-west of Brno in 1860 he was technically not born in Czech. When he died in Prague in 1939 … Read More
Slav Epic Part One – Introduction and Location The Slav Epic is a huge piece of work whether you look at it from a perspective of the number of paintings i.e. twenty, the size of the paintings (6 of the paintings would cover the front of a terraced house in England, including the roof), the … Read More
Slav Epic Part Two – Paintings 1 to 5 This post explores the detail on paintings numbered 1 to 5 in the Slav Epic series with interpretation, what to look for and historic context etc. If you want first to learn what leads up to the creation of the Slav Epic, who painted it, when … Read More
Slav Epic Part Three – Paintings 6 to 10 This post explores the detail on the paintings numbered 6 to 10 in the Slav Epic series with interpretation, what to look for and historic context etc. If you want first to learn what leads up to the creation of the Slav Epic, who painted it, … Read More
Slav Epic Part Four – Paintings 11 to 15 This post explores the detail on paintings numbered 11 to 15 in the Slav Epic series with interpretation, what to look for and historic context etc. If you want first to learn what leads up to the creation of the Slav Epic, who painted it, when … Read More