About ten minutes up the hill from Prague Castle there is a very old monastery. It houses an extensive library and this amazing lookout point. From here you can look over the entire valley that is home to the city of Prague. The hill on the right and the slope at the bottom were once covered with grape vines that the monks harvested to make wine. Apparently their order also carved a series of tunnels into the hill in order to tap an underground river and to build secret passage ways incase they ever needed to hide away.
These buildings are part of the monastery itself. They are in a quiet courtyard off of the main street and remind me very much of a classic ivy league-esque institution of higher learning. But I will have to write more about them when I tour them.
Here is the view of the cathedral at Prague Castle from the left side of the lookout point. It is an incredible structure that I will be writing about very soon, I just have to sit down and and figure out which pictures to use!
This is the view to the right of the lookout point. That hill is called Petrin hill. It has many gardens of both the botanical and beer variety. There are lots of walkways and running paths. That tower in the picture above is a replica of the top of the Eiffel Tower. As the story goes, the first group of organized Czech travelers decided to visit Paris right after the Eiffel Tower was completed. They were so enamored by the sight of the tower that they petitioned and fought for a replica to be built in Prague. Only the very top was replicated because the height of the spot it occupies on Petrin hill and the height of the tower itself add up to the exact height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris!
No comments:
Post a Comment