Sunday, 7 July 2013

Golden Prague

Photography: Carl Joyce
All rights reserved


There is a city in Eastern Europe as controversial as the Communism itself.
After 1989-1991 the post-communist rebranding strategies have delineated another area on the Old Continent, i.e. Central Europe, and thus "relocated" Prague away from the shady, rusty chains of the Iron Curtain. Happily, the capital city is now slowly and steady returning to its image before the Totalitarianism period. Contrary to the popular stag- and hen-do perception of it, Prague is known as Zlaté Mêsto (Golden City)...



...where religious medieval stories are told...




...by mighty Gothic witnesses...


...where peculiar inventions proudly demonstrate the genius of the Humankind;




...where the giants of the past quietly contemplate the repeating clash between Now-and-Then...

... and severely preserve the secrets of their day...


...and as if...judge the Time for its disobedience.



Through the centuries, Prague would attract and deliver units and circles of aristocrats and bohemians...






...artists...

...musicians...

...writers and intellectuals; 


...would suffer physical and cognitive invasions, 




...revolutions that brought down walls...



...and stimulated ideological transformations.



Prague's historical wealth, cultural rich and art heterogeneity isn't something that one needs to search. It is all gracefully portrayed by the detailed centuries-old buildings,

each one of which reminds of a different époque and event;


...by the nestled little replicas... ...scattered everywhere;


...by the bigger statues... ... from the nearer past



and those that still stand up high...

 to keep an eye on the city;

The ancient timelessness lingers indoors...




 ...and outdoors... 



And as if the magic of the past in the present wasn't enough, the weather whimsically decided to contribute to the mystique of the Golden City;



and while some were trying to forget about the temperatures,

 


 others were enjoying the views... 



....and the sounds of Prague; 




...and some were simply engulfed by the urban fatigue.




Associated with names, such as Kafka, Einstein and Mozart, Prague is one of the oldest intellectual,  academic, economic and art centres in Europe. The academies and universities in the capital of Bohemia would once attract some of the most prominent personas of the upper (and not only) societies in Western Europe and the Russian Monarchy. Of course, this is just one tiny particle in the mixture that makes Prague Golden!!!






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