RADIANCES FROM THE PRAGUE CASTLE

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

If you look for a major symbol of the beginnings of Czechia,
you can find it in the Prague Castle,
founded in the 9th century on a high hill near the Vltava River
to be closer to the Sun,
in times when the Central-European Slavs replaced
their old belief in the solar deity Dazbog with the faith in Christianity,
Jesus being also associated with the Sun.

In fact, the Czech Republic is composed of two former states,
Bohemia and Moravia,
which belonged for more centuries
to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
and then to the Habsburg Empire.

In July 2016,
travelling from Dresden to Prague,
I had the chance to see a sunset in Bohemia…

…and travelling from Prague to Bratislava
I had the chance to see the Sun over Moravia.

In 24 July 2014,
after a short walk around the hotel where I had slept,
I climbed by bus to the Prague Castle on a rather cloudy-foggy weather.

The visit was quite moving because in this place
many exceptional things for European culture were conceived,
such as the first university in Central Europe (founded in 1348),
which gave in time many famous scientists, a few Nobel laureates
and excellent writers (Franz Kafka, Karel Capec, Milan Kundera etc.).

I could admire here
interesting buildings, impressive palaces,
old chapels (Holy Cross and Saint George),
and especially the main Catholic cathedral of the country
(founded in the 14th century),
named after Saint Vitus
(patron of dancers and actors),
which is fascinating for its sculptures, stained glass windows
and the astronomical design of the two external clocks.