A visit to Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral

The sun came out for us today!!  It made everything so beautiful.  (It was still cold, about 35 F all day long, but still lovely).

We started the day off with a trip to Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral.  We had a tour guide for the cathedral and the old castle.  He was a wonderful guide full of lots of stories. 

Got to see the changing of the guards at Prague Castle.

 Three churches have been built on the site of St. Vitus, with the most recent one begun in the 1300s and only finished in the early 1990s.  The front part of the nave was completed early, then a wall was built across the back side where the remainder of the nave would eventually be constructed.

Weddings can be held in the cathedral, if you can pay the hefty price.  Can you imagine getting married in this magnificent space?  It was used for coronations until the monarchy came to an end after WWI and the fall of the Hapsburgs.

There are two organs in the cathedral.  The older one is above and is no longer functional.  The smaller one, but the church is raising funds to build a new one as well as restore the older one.  The newest one will go in the back of the sanctuary under the rose window (the other two are on the north side of the nave).

We saw lots of statues of St. Wencelsas and St. Jana Nepomuckeho.  St. Jana (John) was canonized after several miracles including saving a drowning girl who said she saw John with five floating stars above his head.  Many of his statues have the five stars.  His very fancy tomb is made of real silver and weighs about 2000 lbs.  His tongue is considered special because he was the Queen’s confessor, and refused to tell her secrets to the King (and was subsequently tortured – although church-government intrigue also played into it).  If you look closely at the shield next to the cherub, you'll see the image of the tongue (ew! not sure I needed to hear that story)

The royal crypt is under the alter, but it is no longer open following the latest attacks in Paris.  Last year they closed it for tours except for Czech citizens, now it is closed to all.

This was a side chapel for St. Wencelas.  Wencelas was a beloved King before he was a saint.  He took time to work in the fields with peasants and was quite benevolent to his people.  He was assassinated by his brother at the young age of 29.