Veselé Vánoce! (From Eleanor)

Merry Christmas! Last night we attended midnight Mass in the magnificent Baroque style Church of St. James the Greater. To be honest, it's pretty hazy in my memory (I'm not exactly a night owl) but I did get a much greater appreciation for the traditional Mass-- you know, back before Vatican II made the service more accessible. Sure, it was the same Mass performed worldwide, but the long nave and barely-elevated altar made it difficult if not impossible to see what was going on, and the fact that I don't speak Czech didn't help. Nevertheless, I truly enjoyed the experience. The choir and organ were in full swing, and there was plenty to look at! I wasn't able to take photos, so I'm lifting a few from the internet to give you a taste:

The organ is magnificent.

Fortunately, my dad had had the foresight to check out the Wikipedia page before we headed out and it did not disappoint; he was thrilled to find out that there is a mummified human arm suspended from the ceiling. Of course we had to find it before heading out after Mass, and yup! there it was! The arm once belonged to a jewel thief, who was tempted by a statue of the Virgin Mary in the church sometime in the 16th century or thereabouts (well, the church's predecessor). According to legend, the statue reached out and grabbed him and wouldn't let go, so the monks just had to cut his arm off. Right. (If you're interested in reading both a very entertaining account of this thief's story and the tragic tale of a count buried alive in the church, check out this Atlas Obscura entry.)

After being out so late last night, we didn't get up and moving for a while this morning, but after a casual stroll we tucked in to a delicious lunch, where we discovered that mead is good and griotka ( a warm cherry liqueur) even more so. I had a Christmas special of roast goose, bread dumplings, and cabbage-- absolutely delicious!!

We had barely enough time for a quick bathroom break before rushing into our tour of the Municipal House. This prime example of Art Nouveau architecture was constructed between 1905 and 1912 as a hall for concerts and other intellectual and social events for Czech people-- a sort of community center, if you will. It's on the site of the old Royal Court, which was home to the emperor from 1383 to 1485, when Vladislav II relocated the seat of government across the river to Prague Castle following riots.

The Municipal Hall is right next to the Powder Gate, one of 13 original city gates to Old Town. It was given to Vladislav II by the municipality as a coronation gift but then he relocated to Prague Castle. Awkward.

But a cute little walkway was added to connect the Municipal House and Powder Gate!

Municipal House from the outside.

One of the largest halls, which seats 1200 and is still used frequently for concerts.

The organ, original to the hall, has over 5000 pipes.

There's one box for the mayor and one originally reserved for the emperor (now the president).

This room is called the Confectionary.

It still has the original coffee maker!

This room was inspired by folk arts, which you can see in the embroidery and lace.

This is the coolest fish tank! Notice the snails climbing down.

This was supposed to be inspired by Oriental art but it made Ashley and me think more of Egypt.

Some classic 1920's furniture.

Note from Alexandra: if you stand in the center of the room and talk to the ceiling, a really odd resonance is set up; it's quite amazing!

The Czechoslovak declaration of independence was proclaimed from this balcony in 1918.

Look at that embroidery!

The walls of this room were intentionally left relatively plain for a very practical reason: it was to serve as a lecture hall, and they didn't want to distract audience members away from the speaker!

Since we hadn't spent as much time in the Jewish Quarter as we'd hoped yesterday, we headed back to the Maisel Synagogue. Though it has a long and interesting history that is well worth reading about on Wikipedia, today it houses an exhibit on Jewish history in the Czech lands and particularly Prague. I really wish I could go into more detail here because it was absolutely fascinating, but it's bedtime so I'll have to limit myself to a few little tastes!

This cap and the ruff (below) were both required to be worn by Jews at different times so that they were easily identifiable. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, this history is very complex. At some points the Jewish community was allowed to grow in wealth and power, and at others they were put under stringent laws-- for example, to control the Jewish population the government permitted only the eldest son of each family to marry.

I was delighted to come across this manuscript of Delightful and Pleasant by David Gans. Apparently, it's the "most important astronomical work of the Renaissance period by a Jewish author"-- what that means is beyond me, but it is supposed to contain crucial recollections about astronomy superstar Tycho Brahe.

The architect's sketch of the synagogue (before the days of CAD).

The embroidery!! My mother read that men were responsible for some of the thick metallic stitching, since it was so tough to pull through the fabric.

Having just visited the Jewish Cemetery and the Ceremonial Hall, I thought this painting of the Burial Association's ceremony tied everything together nicely.

I'm a huge believer in visiting a Chinese restaurant whenever you travel to a new country-- it's amazing how different it is as they cater to different tastes! Because of this, I managed to convince the rest of the family to forgo the Czech cuisine tonight for something a little more familiar. I was surprised at how spicy a lot of the food was, given the mildness of what we've been eating! The rest of the evening was spent in such leisurely pursuits as wandering through shops and eating trdel. Such is the hard life of a Hook on Christmas day.