Monday, July 3, 2006
Monday evening, and finally I've found a spot. Only a little time, though, as we're meeting some internet friends for dinner.
Today started with EVERYONE in the group moving a bit slowly. We were both sleeping hard when the alarm went off at 7:30, and you know how unusual that is. Both wishing for some sudafed, too, as the weather changes are playin' heck with our sinuses. Nothing we can't walk off, though.
Emil was our tour guide today. He wore a little personal transmitter that helped us hear over all the other noise. Overall he gave a pretty good tour (3 hours worth). Tomorrow he takes some of us to the Castle to do the other side of the river.
There are simply too many buildings and things to talk about here. One of my favorites, though, is a convent from the 14th century. Aside from being a cool looking building (it's now a concert hall), we found out that the Irish Franciscans from Hibernia are the ones that introduced potatoes to the Czechs.
Buildings here have 2 numbers. Maria Theresa (who we learned about in Vienna) apparently put some order to things here, introducing house numbers. There are 2 plaques on buildings -- red ones indicate the order that the buildings were constructed, and blue ones deal with your street address as we would know it. Before that, everyone just named their houses.
And you thought addresses in Hickory were difficult!
After the tour we grabbed a slice of pizza and a diet coke for lunch ($6.00 total), and then caught the 1:30 tour of the Jewish Ghetto (with an english speaking guide).
After touring several of these, we've come to the conclusion that synagogues are much like churches -- they're very pretty, the people that build / maintain them are very proud of them, but after a while they all start to run together and look alike.
The Jewish Quarter (or ghetto) here went from the 13th century up to 1910, although they weren't mandated to live there all that time. Their rights were better or worse, depending on who was in charge at the time. Originally, though, they were locked in with iron gates at night, and no windows could look out at the Christian sections.
The cemetery there was in use from 1434 (the oldest known gravestone) to 1787 -- think about it, they quit using it 2 years before the US was a country because it was FULL! Because they were mandated to bury only in that cemetery, and because it filled up, they buried in layers -- it's now about 40 ft. higher than it was when they started. If they needed to reuse a space, they simply pulled up the stone, put someone on top, covered them over and returned the old stone and added a new one. They have 12,000 markers -- that goes with 180,000 graves (the wooden ones fell apart).
Between 1897 and 1910 the jewish quarter was destroyed because it had become so rundown -- they were originally prohibited from building with bricks / stone, so much of it was wooden. Seeing a chance for urban renewal, the bureaucrats ordered it razed and rebuilt. This eliminated all of the affordable housing, resulting in gentrification (which we see today!)
There was much hue and cry against this from the historic preservation folks back then, but all they were able to save was 6 synagogues, the Jewish City Hall, and the cemetery. They have pictures of the rest of it being torn down -- they didn't deconsecrate the holy places, and the photos show the Torah Cabinets being bulldozed along with the rest of the building. It's actually quite shameful and makes me wonder if our cities today are more respectful when they have to do that type of activity.
Because most of the jews perished in the holocaust, most of the synagogues are now museums (although some still operate). Lots of treasures were hidden from the Nazis and russians and later returned, so they've got some incredible things to show. One synagogue has the names of 80,000 people who died written on the walls. It's very moving, but unfortunately flooded in 2002 and sustained pretty substantial damage. They're in the process of repairing it now.
After 3 synagogues (incidentally, there's no spell check here, so I'm guessing) and the cemetery, we opted out of the other 2 and went looking for desert, coffee and a nap before dinner. We're meeting some people that we've talked to on the internet, so it ought to be a fun dinner tonight.
Larry & Eddie
Today started with EVERYONE in the group moving a bit slowly. We were both sleeping hard when the alarm went off at 7:30, and you know how unusual that is. Both wishing for some sudafed, too, as the weather changes are playin' heck with our sinuses. Nothing we can't walk off, though.
Emil was our tour guide today. He wore a little personal transmitter that helped us hear over all the other noise. Overall he gave a pretty good tour (3 hours worth). Tomorrow he takes some of us to the Castle to do the other side of the river.
There are simply too many buildings and things to talk about here. One of my favorites, though, is a convent from the 14th century. Aside from being a cool looking building (it's now a concert hall), we found out that the Irish Franciscans from Hibernia are the ones that introduced potatoes to the Czechs.
Buildings here have 2 numbers. Maria Theresa (who we learned about in Vienna) apparently put some order to things here, introducing house numbers. There are 2 plaques on buildings -- red ones indicate the order that the buildings were constructed, and blue ones deal with your street address as we would know it. Before that, everyone just named their houses.
And you thought addresses in Hickory were difficult!
After the tour we grabbed a slice of pizza and a diet coke for lunch ($6.00 total), and then caught the 1:30 tour of the Jewish Ghetto (with an english speaking guide).
After touring several of these, we've come to the conclusion that synagogues are much like churches -- they're very pretty, the people that build / maintain them are very proud of them, but after a while they all start to run together and look alike.
The Jewish Quarter (or ghetto) here went from the 13th century up to 1910, although they weren't mandated to live there all that time. Their rights were better or worse, depending on who was in charge at the time. Originally, though, they were locked in with iron gates at night, and no windows could look out at the Christian sections.
The cemetery there was in use from 1434 (the oldest known gravestone) to 1787 -- think about it, they quit using it 2 years before the US was a country because it was FULL! Because they were mandated to bury only in that cemetery, and because it filled up, they buried in layers -- it's now about 40 ft. higher than it was when they started. If they needed to reuse a space, they simply pulled up the stone, put someone on top, covered them over and returned the old stone and added a new one. They have 12,000 markers -- that goes with 180,000 graves (the wooden ones fell apart).
Between 1897 and 1910 the jewish quarter was destroyed because it had become so rundown -- they were originally prohibited from building with bricks / stone, so much of it was wooden. Seeing a chance for urban renewal, the bureaucrats ordered it razed and rebuilt. This eliminated all of the affordable housing, resulting in gentrification (which we see today!)
There was much hue and cry against this from the historic preservation folks back then, but all they were able to save was 6 synagogues, the Jewish City Hall, and the cemetery. They have pictures of the rest of it being torn down -- they didn't deconsecrate the holy places, and the photos show the Torah Cabinets being bulldozed along with the rest of the building. It's actually quite shameful and makes me wonder if our cities today are more respectful when they have to do that type of activity.
Because most of the jews perished in the holocaust, most of the synagogues are now museums (although some still operate). Lots of treasures were hidden from the Nazis and russians and later returned, so they've got some incredible things to show. One synagogue has the names of 80,000 people who died written on the walls. It's very moving, but unfortunately flooded in 2002 and sustained pretty substantial damage. They're in the process of repairing it now.
After 3 synagogues (incidentally, there's no spell check here, so I'm guessing) and the cemetery, we opted out of the other 2 and went looking for desert, coffee and a nap before dinner. We're meeting some people that we've talked to on the internet, so it ought to be a fun dinner tonight.
Larry & Eddie
posted by me | 8:31 AM
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