Woot! Ahoy! Maerose here. After a few days of rainy and gloomy weather, the sun is back up in the sky again! And with that is the motivation to write the third part of my escapade to one of the most visited tourist destinations in Europe — the city of Prague. (If you missed Part 1: The fairy tale City of a Hundred Spires, Part 2: Wandering across one of the most beautiful bridges in Europe)
A few street turns from the Charles Bridge is the majestic castle complex of Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles. Prague Castle is the largest coherent castle complex in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Built around 800 A.D., it was established as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the entire historic city, in 1992.
I have encountered many staircases during my travels, and the stairs going up the castle is one heck of a staircase! 😀
It would take me hours to write about the palaces, halls, churches, towers, monuments, gardens, and other structures found within the complex. So, I’ll just focus on the significant once, and share many a pictures to let the Castle speak for itself. 😉
As I have described in the first entry, the weather in the city during my visit was very unpredictable and surprising. Just imagine all the possible weather conditions happening in one day. 😉 That didn’t stop me from exploring the castle and the city though!
By the way, roaming around the castle complex is free, but visiting the insides of the buildings and churches is not. Hundreds of tourists visit the complex everyday, so one can expect a very crowded ticket station. Because of that, I skipped the interior of the buildings, sad to say.
Now, one of the most prominent buildings in the area is the St. Vitus Cathedral. It is a Roman Catholic metropolitan church, which also serves as the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. The largest and most important church in the country, the Gothic structure contains the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, according to Wikipedia.
The Castle offers not only amazing architectural styles, but also magnificent views of the city! I even found a downhill vineyard on my way out. It seems like the perfect location to put a castle, if you’re thinking about elegance and serenity rolled into one.
It was truly a magical experience to visit the castle complex. Never had I imagined in my younger years that I’ manage to see a place like that. (Yep, no castles whatsoever in the Philippines. What we have are the Malacañang Palace, a modern building that serves as the residence of the President, and several fortifications and very old churches from the Spanish era. And malls. Plenty of huge malls!)
If not for my goal to visit all the safe countries in the world, I’d definitely want to go back to beautiful Prague. I even imagined myself living there. It seemed unlikely though, given that the Czech language is difficult to learn (got three languages to juggle in my mind already, heh) and they got restricted and unavailable sites on the web, like Netflix (not that I used netflix).
Anyway, next time, I’ll write about the little tour around the contrasting Old and New Town of Prague. Thanks for reading and enjoy the weather! #spreadlove
PinayOdyssey 