Sunday in Prague

Our group began our walk through the Town Square in the early AM and our guide showed us the different churches and buildings and their architectural style. We went up in the tower to take pics and learned about Jan Hus, a Czech priest, philosopher, reformer, and scholar who tried to get the Catholic Church to reform.



He preceded Martin Luther by about a hundred years and angered the Catholic Church by preaching in the Czech language. Of course the Church required it's priests to preach in Latin - a language not understood by the people. He preached against the corrupt practices of the Catholic Church and was called to testify before the Pope and Cardinals at the Council of Constance. There he was declared a heretic and burned at the stake. He became a folk hero for saying that all men were equal (in the face of God) and his followers engaged in an extended armed conflict with Catholic forces. Our guide told us that July 6, the anniversary of the martyrdom of Jan Hus, is a public holiday in the Czech Republic. Also, the Communists, oddly enough, honored him as a supporter of their platform because he saw all men as equal. Of course, they quoted him out of context and left out the part about "in the face of God".



The second half of the morning was touring the Jewish Quarter where we visited a museum honoring all who died at the hands of the Nazis at the many death camps. One picture above features the wall with the names of those camps and the walls (see below) were filled with the names of each Jew who lost their life in those death camps. (you may have to zoom in to see the names)



Outside we walked through the Jewish Cemetery where the Jews were limited to burying their dead starting in 1439. Due to the fact that they were never allowed to expand the burial plots to other parts of the city for over 300 years they were forced to bring in soil to create burial plots one on top of the other. In what appeared to me about an acre of property they were forced to ultimately bury their dead 12 deep. Over 100,000 Jews were buried here between 1439 and 1787. Incredible. Of course when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939 all of the Jews were moved to concentration camps. Only 100 Jews live today in Prague.


Tomorrow morning we leave Prague and have one more overnight stay in the Czech Republic before rolling into Austria.