December 8, 2007

Petrin Hill, Prague

Enjoying the good local company of Sisina and Petra, Matt and Dana ascend Prague's famous hill,
with its awesome views of the Prague Castle complex, Mala Strana, and the Vltava River.

(Click to view larger version of any of the photos below.)

 

 

 

Nobody climbs a hill without some caffeine first! Dana at the Ebel Coffeehouse, 10:13 am.

Stretching up Petrin Hill is
the Hunger Wall, constructed
from 1360 - 1362.

King Charles IV ordered it built as a job-creation scheme for the starving unemployed people of the city.

 

 

the statistics engraved at the Monument to Victims of Communism Who Survived

These figures walking down the steps at the bottom of the hill represent communism's victims.

Dana and Matt at the Monument to Victims of Communism Who Survived  

 

 

The sculptures represent a man not dying but slowly fading
away, one limb at a time.

This symbolizes the oppression of a totalitarian regime.

The monument was unveiled in 2002.

 

 

Sisina on the funicular railway

Matt and Dana in front
of the Hunger Wall

The Astronomical Institute of
the Czech Academy of Sciences
is based on Petrin Hill.

 

 

Sisina and Petra in front
of the Hunger Wall

 This is the Stefanik
Observatory, and visitors can
look through telescopes.

Images taken the previous month
are on display outside. 

 

 

Sis and Petra, 11:59 am

 The observatory was named
for Slovak astronomer
Milan Rastislav Stefanik...

 ...whose statue out front
Dana greets warmly.

 

 

 Stefanik was a soldier, a general in the French army, a pilot, a diplomat and the co-founder of the Czechoslovakian state.

 He studied astronomy at Prague's Charles University and worked in the observatory in Meudon, close to Paris.

 

 

 

 the sundial at the observatory

 the astronomical sundial wall

Stefanik is also known as
Hvezdarna Hlavniho Mesta:
“The People’s Observatory.”

 

 

 Dana maneuvers around a painted maze on Petrin Hill.

 

 the observatory from a distance

 

 

first glimpse of Petrin Tower,
12:15 pm

This brick pathway leads northeast, to Petrin Tower.

 

 

 

Under an archway, with Prague laid out beneath me.

Dana, Sisina

Petrin Tower is a scaled-down copy
of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

 

 

At 200 feet tall, it’s a fifth
of the height of the Eiffel.

On Petrin Tower’s observation deck, with Prague Castle northeast of us.

the Prague Castle complex, with
St. Vitus’ Cathedral dead center

 

 

Sisina: “I’m down on the
ground and you’re not!”

This plaque details how the tower was erected for the Prague Industrial Exhibition of 1891,
two years after the
Eiffel Tower’s completion.

There’s no elevator, and you climb
299 steps to reach the platform, but
the views are worth it.  On a clear day
you can see some Czech
mountain ranges in Krkonose.

 

 

treetops and the Vltava River

Due to being built on Petrin Hill, the top of Petrin Tower actually sits at the same elevation
as the real Eiffel Tower.

The tower was made from recycled railway tracks and took only 31 days
to build, from start to finish.

 

 

 

Straight ahead is the Zizkov
tv tower, and to the left
center is Charles Bridge.

Sisina (with Petra) will just make faces until Matt & Dana come down
from the tower.

 

 

The red roofs of Mala Strana (Little Quarter), with Charles Bridge leading east to Stare Mesto (Old Town)

 

The district of Hradcany (Castle Quarter) surrounds Prague Castle, from which Czech leaders have ruled for more
than a thousand years.

 

 

100 meters east of Petrin Tower is the Mirror Maze, housed inside this mock castle.

Starting to move north
on Petrin Hill, 1:20 pm

 

 

 

Matt will create a photo op,
and that’s set in stone.

Sis on steps

 

 

 

 

Dana

 

 

 

 

 

 St. Vitus' Cathedral

 

 

 The buildings that comprise Prague Castle include a grand palace, three churches,
and a monastery.

 

 pausing during the walk north
across Petrin Hill, 1:30 pm

 

 

view from a bird feeder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 There's the Tyn Church!

 

 

 

 

 

Sis, Petra, and Dana
head toward Prague Castle.

 

 

 

 

Sisina, Matt, Dana

 

 

Learn more regarding the communism victims' memorial sculpture.

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