Hradcany Castle - the heart and soul of Prague

The facade of St Vitus Cathedral
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Damn this city for being so beautiful.

The colours of the buildings are amazing. Grey stone surrounded by bright pink, yellow, blue, emerald green, lemon and even black design festooned with cherubs, frescoes and statues - the whole city is an explosian of baroque. A perfect preserved medieval city kept secret from the world for so long. I found myself thinking it was more beautiful then Paris this morning.

The sky above me was like a medieval vision of hell - all boiling clouds and rumbling thunder.

The Royal Palace
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Today was going to be a full day of sightseeing and I wanted to get to Hradcany Castle before the crowds arrive. I took the metro to Malestanska and the great bulk of Hradcany loomed above me as I climbed the metro steps. Stone steps up winding lanes lead you up to the summit of Hracany hill. The great iron gates of the Hrad are guarded by uniformed soldiers flanked by statues of sinewy giants . After the first courtyard a passageway leads further into the Hrad and this is where the crowds get gridlocked as they stop and stare at the facade of St Vitus Cathedral. Great twin spires reach into the sky and the facade is crowned with stained glass windows and minute statues.Inside is very crowded with the tourgroups treading on each others toes but the rainbow light playing on the floor from the stainedglass windows was mesmerising.

The cutesy 'Golden Lane'
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Across the courtyard is the offices of the Czech president (Vaclev Havel at the time) decked out in light mauve roccoco. But the real Royal Palace was nearby and stood overlooking the castle walls. The Bohemian kings used to hold court in the ribbed Vladislav hall. The vaulted ceilings to the palace showed frescoes showing coats of arms. But the highlight was a viewing platform looking south across the red rooftops of Mala Strana to the river. The rolling red rooftops and domes reached all the way to the Charles Bridge. Simpl gorgeous!

It started to rain heavily so I hid in the cloisters of the Church of St Jiri. The sky above me was like a medieval vision of hell - all boiling clouds and rumbling thunder. I donned my rainproof when I had enough of saicophagai and catholic saint statues and headed to Zlata Ulika (Golden Lane). This lane of Dolly-mixture coloured cottages look especially twee and cute. They are full of laceshops and souvenir stalls. There was a medieval torture museum which hid me from a torrential downpour which turned the lane into a sea of anoraks and squeals.

I spent about two hours in the Castle and another hour in the surrounding gardens which smelled so fresh after rain.From there were stunning views of the city. And after checking out Loreto Church and Strahov Monastery (see review) I headed downhill.

What I need is a really good Czech beer inside me..