tour guide

This Friday, Meredith and I decided we needed to get to know Prague a lot more. Unfortunately doing laundry in the morning took far too long, so we only got to know Prague a little bit better!

But we went to the Jewish Cemetery as a start. The Jewish ghetto, Josefov, of Prague is comprised of the Klaus Synagogue and Ceremonial Hall, the Pinkas Synagogue, the Maisel Synagogue, the Old-New Synagogue and the Old Jewish Cemetery. With one ticket we were able to visit all of those sites except the Old-New Synagogue… we did happen to sneak into this one though!

Anyway, the Jewish Ghetto is pretty interesting and has a lot of history in Prague. Particularly intriguing is the Old Jewish Cemetery - it dates back to the 15^th century and is one of the oldest Jewish burial grounds in the world. The cemetery has 12,000 headstones but actually holds 100,000 bodies. This means that bodies were stacked on top of one another for two centuries, in graves that are layered 12 deep. Because of all stacked bodies, the headstones are crumbling and leaning on top of one another, being pushed up and out of the ground; even the center of the cemetery is a hill because of the number of people buried there.

Next to the cemetery is a Holocaust Memorial at the Pinkas Synagogue, where on the walls are engravings of the names of 80,000 murdered Bohemian Jews. It was quite a sobering sight.

After exploring Josefov for most the afternoon, Meredith and I headed back into the heart of Old Town and took pictures of Old Town Square, which is literally a 3 minute walk from my school. In the center of the square is a statue/monument of Jan Hus – a 15^th century reformer that lead the Hussite movement, which challenged the Catholic church and its corruption – who was burned at the stake in 1415 for his reformist ‘heresy’. Opposite Jan Hus is the Astronomical Clock –not even worth watching – and the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn.

Just a short walk from Old Town Square through thousands of tourists and by 100s of souvenir shops selling crystal, amber, scarves, puppets, etc, and finally down a small street called Michalska is my school. It’s in a small little courtyard that closes it’s doors at 9:30 every night. We occupy the top floors of the 14^th century building and we share the courtyard with a gallery, several apartments, and a tea shop.

Inside we have a pretty great space – we have a lecture room, a kitchen, a small computer lab, and 3 studio rooms. My desk is in the furthest corner, next to a small kitchenette.

Although the space is small and the internet is pretty slow most of the time, I’ve really enjoyed studio here. My second project is due next week, as soon as I get back from Berlin, so I’ll be able
to share what I’ve been working on lately then.