Our last destination on our AmaWaterways Christmas Markets river cruise on the Danube was Prague in the Czech Republic. It’s a gleaming city of Gothic arcades, Renaissance windows, Rococo cherubs, and Art Nouveau sylphs.
Find a local guide in Prague, here.
The cruise company booked us into the Old Town Hilton in Prague, which was lovely. Generally, I prefer small, locally run boutique hotels but the Old Town Hilton was centrally located and made it easy to walk into the historic section of town.
For more details on our Christmas Market river cruise, click on the links below:
- Hungary Travel Photo Gallery
- Germany Travel Photo Gallery
- Austria Travel Photo Gallery
- AMAWaterways Travel Photo Gallery
- Christmas Markets
During the winter, the city is aglow with Christmas decorations and festivities.
One of the highlights of our quick stay was touring Prague Castle which was built in the 9th century. Our guide pointed out some of the wall art on several Renaissance buildings. She called it sgraffito art but it wasn’t anything like the type of graffiti you see in most cities.
Walking over the Charles Bridge over the Vltava River you can see 30 mostly Baroque statues by various sculptors depicting saints and tributes to the city’s storied past. The statues that were erected starting in 1683 have mostly been replaced by replicas and the originals are now housed in the National Museum. The bridge connects the old town with the lessor town.
One is a controversial sculpture portraying Jesus on the cross with Hebrew lettering.
“In 1696, the Prague authorities accused a local Jewish leader, Elias Backoffen, of blasphemy. As his punishment, he was ordered to raise the funds for purchasing gold-plated Hebrew letters, placed around the head of the statue, spelling out “Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord of Hosts,” the Kedusha from the Hebrew prayer and originating in the vision from the Book of Isaiah.
The inscription was a symbolic humiliation and degradation of Prague Jews, forcing them to pay for a set of golden letters referring to God and hung around the neck of the statue of Christ.” ~ Jewishmag.com
An organ grinder with a stuffed monkey plays his accordian and sells tourist items in the photo below.
We were there in December and there is a large Christmas Market at Wenceslas Square and the Old Town Square. The Astronomical Clock, installed in 1410, is also on the square.
I would love to go back someday and spend much more time there as well as visit other parts of the Czech Republic. It’s affordable, gorgeous, and truly unique.
Photos from our two nights in Prague
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Check out top things to do in the area here.
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For me walking through the streets of historical Prague, is like walking a gallery of all major European architectural styles, spanning a thousand years of architectural history in enchanting colors and shapes and, it is interesting to discover how these splendid buildings shaped the history of the Czech Republic and in contrast, how history shaped the designs of many of these buildings and what they came to symbolize in an historical context.
In the historical center of Prague you can walk past the Municipal House, the Art Nouveau jewel of Prague, that is covered in floral motives, guilded wroth iron curved around beautifully shaded stain glass.
And continues through the Gothic and neo-Gothic styled powder tower going to the Celetna street , covered with Baroque palaces with Gothic interiors and Renaissance courts yards. On the way you encounter the unique Cubist house at the Black Madonna with its straight angular lines., then continues on to the medieval Ungelt, compound with its Renaissance palace , past the heavily Baroque St, James Church and into the Old town Square with its legendary Astronomical clock. Which is followed by the Art Nouveau Jewish Quarters with its ancient synagogues.
Rob, Thank you so much for your wonderful descriptions of the amazing city of Prague. I wish I could have stayed longer and will next time. If I’m able to come back I would love to go on one of your tours. ♥