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
Slav Epic Part Five – Paintings 16 to 20 This post explores the detail on paintings numbered 16 to 20 in the Slav Epic 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 and … 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
Lost Islands of Prague Every city goes through redevelopment, it’s just one of those things which comes with city life and Prague has been through it’s own share of changes. This is a post about the lost islands of Prague. It’s @1850 and there’s a new Emperor on the throne called Franz Josef. There are … Read More
The Terezin Ghetto Editors It’s December 1941 and the Nazis had begun the deportation of the Jewish community from all parts of the Protectorate (what Czech was called during WW2) to the new internment camp called the Terezin Ghetto. By the summer of 1942 conditions were getting worse with overcrowding and the Jewish Council in … Read More
WW2 Roma Internment In World War Two a group of people were racially profiled, segregated, interned, transported, tattooed and executed. But this isn’t a story about Jewish people. In England we might know them as travellers, some people call them gypsies but in Czech they are called Roma. As far back as 1933, Adolf Hitler … Read More
The Prague Jewish Ghetto Destruction On this post I’ll seek to give you an overview of the timeline and decisions taken which eventually led to the destruction of the Prague Jewish Ghetto. Before the year 1437 Jewish citizens in Prague could live wherever they wanted and there is ample evidence to show that they had … Read More
Prague Flag People who come to Prague often wonder why there are so many Spanish flags in the city. However, if they had looked closer they would have seen that the Spanish flag is Red-Yellow-Red and the one you see throughout Prague is Yellow over Red. So where does it come from and who can … 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
Prague Calvary The official title is the Statuary of the Holy Crucifix and Calvary. You may think this is just another statue on Charles Bridge. Actually you will find out that it was the original figure on the bridge, the most historic and the most religiously divisive. We’re talking legends and blasphemy. There are two … Read More