| A
season of reflection ... | | ...
a season of growth.
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St.
Vitus Cathedral, Prague This Gothic cathedral, the spiritual symbol of the
Czech state, was founded by Jan Lucembursky and his sons Karel and Jan Jindrich.
It took nearly 600 yrs to build. [1/3] | Begun
in 1344 by Mathias Arras and Petr Parler, the final phase of construction only
ended during 1873-1929. The cathedral contains underground tombs of Czech kings.[2/3] |
Parler also built St Wenceslas Chapel where the coronation jewels are deposited.
The chapel is decorated with frescoes and semi-precious stones. [3/3] |
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| "Gothic"
was first used during the later Renaissance, and as a term of contempt. Evelyn,
expressing the mental attitude of his own time wrote, "The ancient Greek
and Roman architecture answered all the perfections required in a faultless and
accomplished building" but the Goths and Vandals destroyed these and "introduced
in their stead a certain fantastical and licentious manner of building: congestions
of heavy, dark, melancholy, monkish piles, without any just proportion, use or
beauty." | For
a thousand years Prague Castle in the Hradcany royal complex has towered above
the river Vltava. Industrious building on the castle began in the late 9th century
when the royal Premyslid family took power over the united Czech territories.
Saint George Basilica, Saint Vitus Cathedral, and a convent were erected within
the fortress walls. | Czech-born
German-speaking writer whose posthumously published novels express the alienation
of 20th century man. Kafka's nightmares of dehumanization, bureaucratic labyrinths,
and totalitarian society have much in common with the works of George Orwell (Nineteen
Eighty-Four, 1949; Animal Farm, 1955). Kafka's ill health was also an important
biographical factor behind the fear of physical and mental collapse. |
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| Terezin | Sudetenland
Countryside | Nazi
Housing, Terezin |
| As
Hitler transported tens of thousands of communal objects to Prague, their owners
were rounded up and shipped first to a city built Northwest of Prague in 1780
by Joseph II. Ironically, this city served as a fortress to protect Prague from
invaders to the North. Joseph II named this village after his mother, Maria Teresia,
calling it Terezin. The Red Cross was allowed to visit Terezin once. The village
of Terezin was spruced up for the occasion. | The
Sudetenland was part of Germany until 1806 and of the German Confederation between
1815 and 1866. After the World War I the Sudetenland (some 11,000 square miles)
became part of Czechoslovakia. Until Adolf Hitler came to power most Sudenten
Germans were content to remain in Czechoslovakia. In 1935 a Sudten-German Party,
financed from within Nazi Germany, complained that the Czech government discriminated
against them. Germans who had lost their jobs in the depression began to argue
that they might be better off under Hitler. | Certain
inmates were dressed up and told to stand at strategic places along the specially
designated route through Terezin. Shop windows along that carefully guarded path
were filled with goods for the day. One young mother remembers seeing the bakery
window and shelves suddenly filled with baked goods the inmates had never seen
during their time at Terezin. Even the candy shop window overflowed with bon bons
creating a fantastic illusion she would never forget. |
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