You have
been patiently waiting for the history of Prague, so during today’s shopping
spree with the ladies, we will give you the information you have been eagerly
anticipating: Wikipedia says it
was first populated during the Paleolithic Era—not very precise, because as you
well know, that era began 2.6 million years ago and ended at 10,000 B.C.
But at least we know from this tidbit that no people were in Prague more than
2.6 million years ago (perhaps you guessed that). And since the
Paleolithic Era ended at about the same time as the Pleistocene, we can say
with some degree of certainty that folks came here before the Mesolithic.
Perhaps it would have been better to simply say that the place had people in
prehistoric times.
Powder Tower – where the
gunpowder was kept
But
the first people we can certainly identify as populating the area were the
Celts, who had a settlement here around 200 B.C. Three hundred years
later, Germanic tribes had taken over. But in the great 5th century
migration that followed the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, they headed
west and in the 6th century, the Slavs moved in. They’ve been
here pretty much since then, in this historical capital of Bohemia.
Municipal house, with Prague’s
largest concert hall
Prague was twice the capital of
the Holy Roman Empire, where two separate emperors once lived. It was
also part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, which collapsed in World War I. It became the capital of Czechoslovakia when
that country was created in 1918 at the end of the war. The city played major
roles in the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years' War. As for Czechoslovakia, that country existed
for much less time than its capital city.
Partially incorporated into Nazi Germany in 1939-45, it fell under
Soviet Communist control until the collapse of that evil empire. Finally, in January 1993, the country was
peacefully separated into Slovakia and the Czech Republic, where we now find ourselves.
We
are fortunate that despite all the outside interference and wars over the last
thousand years or so, particularly the two World Wars of the 2oth century, most of Prague’s historic buildings remain undamaged.
In the Sarah Bernhardt Restaurant
After a busy day of
touring and shopping, we settled down at the Sarah Bernhardt Restaurant in Hotel
Paris, just around the corner from our
apartment. We enjoyed a great meal,
accompanied by an accomplished pianist, before sauntering over to the Municipal
House, where we were treated to a 2-hour concert by the Karlovy Vary Symphony
Orchestra. This famous orchestra was
founded in 1835 and is still based in the spa town of Karlovy Vary, with a
current population of under 50,000. To assemble
such a group of musicians from such a town tells a great deal about the
emphasis on the arts in this corner of Europe.
We watched and listened to Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Grieg’s
Piano Concerto in A Minor, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E Minor. It was a wonderful ending to an active day.
Smetana Hall in the
Municipal House
By the way,
during our wandering today, we had a glass of Budweiser beer. Not the Budweiser you know, but the original
Budweiser, which has been brewed since the 14th century in the Czech town of Ceske
Budejovice. A dispute has raged for more
than 100 years over the right to use the name, German immigrant Augustus Busch
having begun its use in America in 1876 because it reminded him of his old
country.
And one of us
enjoyed a scoop of gingerbread and a scoop of strudel to keep his mind off all
the shopping his wife was doing.
Charlie & Tricia
©2014
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