RETRO SERIES - Prague - Part II

Welcome to the second video in our RETRO series. As we can't travel, we've dug deep into our archives and now present travel episodes created from media taken before we started travelling (augmented with licensed footage).

Charles Bridge is a historic bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. As the only means of crossing the river Vltava until 1841, Charles Bridge was the most important connection between Prague Castle and the city's Old Town and adjacent areas. This "solid-land" connection made Prague important as a trade route between Eastern and Western Europe.

Crossing the bridge, we decided to make our way to Prague Castle, an imposing presence on the horizon from almost anywhere in the city. We passed by a great many shops, and stopped for a deconstructed bagel sandwich before plodding up the very steep cobblestone roads that will take you atop the hill where the castle resides.

Prague Castle is a castle complex in Prague, Czech Republic, built in the 9th century. It is the official office of the President of the Czech Republic. The castle was a seat of power for kings of Bohemia, Holy Roman emperors, and presidents of Czechoslovakia.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Prague Castle is the largest coherent castle complex in the world, with an area of almost 70,000 m². A UNESCO World Heritage site, it consists of a large-scale composition of palaces and ecclesiastical buildings of various architectural styles, from the remains of Romanesque-style buildings from the 10th century through Gothic modifications of the 14th century.

St. Vitus Cathedral is the largest and the most important temple in Prague. Apart from religious services, coronations of Czech kings and queens also took place here. The cathedral is a place of burial of several patron saints, sovereigns, noblemen and archbishops.

We decided to head towards a funicular that would take us up to the Stefanik Observatory, but first we ran across the Memorial to the Victims of Communism monument commemorating the victims of the communist era between 1948 and 1989. It was unveiled on the 22 May 2002, twelve years after the fall of communism in the Eastern Bloc. It shows six bronze figures descending a flight of stairs.

The funicular railway runs to the top of Petrin Hill. It opened in 1891, operating with a water-balance drive system. It ceased running in 1916 due to World War I, then resumed operations in 1932 following its conversion to an electrical drive system.

It closed once more in 1965 after landslides on Petrin destroyed the funicular's tracks. But since reopening in 1985, the funicular has been in more or less continuous operation.

The funicular passes through the Hunger Wall, which was commissioned by Emperor Charles IV in 1360-1362. It gained its name in memory of the fact that it was built during hard times to provide employment for the residents of Prague. The wall formed part of the city's medieval fortifications.

The Štefánik Observatory has stood in Petřín Park since 1928. Its current appearance dates back to an extensive renovation that was carried out in the 1970s. The most interesting attractions offered at the observatory consist of the public viewings of the day and night skies, a permanent exhibition about astronomy, and tours of the observatory’s equipment.

Strahov, a district in Prague, is where the ventilation tower can be found. It was built in the 90's to vent carbon monoxide from the vehicle tunnel directly below. It's a short walk from the observatory.

And finally, across the road from the tower, is the very large, but also dilapidated, Strahov Stadium, the largest in the world and able to hold some 250,000 spectators. Since the 90's, there have been few events hosted here. Part of the stadium was reconstructed in 2003, and in 2014 complex management was turned over to the city of Prague. There were plans to rebuild the area as an Olympic village if Prague won a future Olympic bid. However, the bid for 2016 was unsuccessful.

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One of the things Shawn and I do wherever we travel is take lots and lots of pictures. So here's a short sample of images that didn't fit with the rest of our programming.