Monastery, Miniatures, and More!
May 8
Today I continued with my tourism scavenger hunt, bringing along my friend Griff who wanted to get some DSLR photos and fun tourism in as well!
The goal today is to explore the other side of the Castle Quarter, where the main attraction is the Strahov Monastery (Strahovský klášter) and Library.
This was another instance of finding places we had been to on our tour in January and being amazed how close it was, and how easy it was to get to, and all the cool historical things we had actually seen!
We started at Strahov: an ancient monastery, (famous for its brewery as well - we tried to get a seat there, but it was very busy) and library. You had to pay to take pictures, so I did not but he did (for his librarian mom, the library was very important!).
It was pretty cool - you could only look from a roped off area, but otherwise still historical and interesting.
The exterior!
Towards the brewery.
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Afterwards we headed towards a destination I wanted to check out, the nearby Museum of Miniatures. It's just one room (which makes sense, because everything is super small). The ticket guy was a bit rude, and distracted by a segway salesperson (or something), which soured the experience a bit, but otherwise the miniatures were nice to marvel at.
Normal size
Microscopic view of some tiny animals on a strand of hair
Tiny painting!
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After that we walked towards the Loreta Church. A pilgrimage destination filled with holy and royal artifacts, it's also pretty beautiful.
You take a tour around the church, wrapped around a courtyard which houses the Santa Casa:
Inside is a plank of wood that's supposed to be from the Virgin Mary's family home.
Back in the church, at the final corner sits the Bearded Lady (or, as the Loreta website calls it, the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows).
Her story is this: a devoted Catholic, her father nevertheless arranged for her to marry a pagan man. She prayed for a release from this marriage; the result: she grew a beard, becoming repulsive to the man who no longer wanted to marry her. Because she ruined her father's deal, he crucified her. She is now a patron saint for unhappily married women, which is what all the candles are for. The beard on the statue is not very realistic to me, but I'm still kind of fascinated by this story.
Finally, we stopped in the treasury and saw the most jeweled-out crowns and royal items ever! No pictures allowed, unfortunately, but here's some from the web.
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Last, but not least, was our stop through the Černín Palace (Černínský palác) gardens. There were a lot of people there, because some performance was about to happen, but it was still great to walk around in.
Walking around, we also found some beautiful tree and flower-filled paths, with great views:
The castle!
This was especially awesome because we turned the corner and bam! Awesome. A great spring day with lots of historical sites!