A Soggy Yet Incredibly Fun Excursion to Praha

I went to Praha with some friends on Saturday in order to leave Sunday free for the possibility of travel to somewhere else. However, travel plans for Sunday fell through.

Now, dear readers, you may reproach me for not making the effort to go somewhere exciting on my last free day in Europe. However, my reasons for not going are as follows:

1. I didn't fall in with a group of friends who was renting a car and going to Italy like some people here.
2. The group attempts at going places all failed.
3. It's pretty easy to find people to go to Prague with, but finding people to commit to a longer more expensive trip with is difficult.

and

4. I am more or less out of money. I have enough to eat this week as long as I limit myself to sandwiches and nutella and ramen. I am a college student. I am poor. And I am determined to finish out this trip without asking my parents to add money to my bank account.

So. My Saturday trip to Prague. On the metro into Praha, we decided (almost on a whim) to go to the Dvořák Museum and I am so glad we did. The museum is a beautiful house which we think he lived in. It is beautiful, although not very big. The first floor is centered around the ticket desk which doubles as the cash register for the gift shop. The rooms are all connected (sort of like on the first floor of my house) so you can walk around the first floor in a circle. The first floor is dedicated to Dvořák's life and the second floor to his compositions. In what looks like a living room, the first thing one sees is a desk with an open score...which is a fascimile of the New World Symphony.

Important documents that we saw on the first floor include his birth, marriage, and death certificates. We also saw the robes he wore when he graduated from Cambridge, some silver laurels and cups he received as various awards, and his viola. :-)


Next is a room with his piano, a crucifix he owned, a bronze bust of Dvořák, and other assorted memorabilia.


We then went up a spiral staircase carpeted in red and exclaimed in awe at what we saw upon arriving on the second floor.

A very large square room held display cases along the walls, chairs arranged as if it were a concert salon, and a piano. A side room with more displays was barely visible from the main room around the corner. What was striking, however, was the fact that the walls and ceiling are entirely covered in frescoes. I don't believe there is a plain spot in the wall. The frescoes are brightly colored and depict scenes and themes from Greek mythology. It is modeled after the temple of the Muses. Central to the ceiling fresco is Apollo seated on Pegasus.

There is a scene painted in each corner of the room, one representing each branch of the arts, for four in total. The first represents Architecture and depicts Emperor Vespasianus looking up the plans for the Coliseum. He is seated on his throne while an elderly man holds the blueprints for the building with a crowd in the background.

Next is Painting, represented by Apelles painting a portrait of Alexander the Great. Alexander lounges in a chair, draped in a scarlet cloak with a large dog at his side.
Orpheus is painted surrouned by wild beasts that he has tamed by playing his lyre. He, of course, represents Music. He's mostly naked except for a rather tastefully draped red cloth.
Finally, Geometry is represented by a depiction of the death of Archimedes. Archimedes is portrayed as an old, bearded, shirtless man who clutches a diagram of a triangle as an armored soldier wields a spear, poised to deliver the fatal blow.
Three painted statues appear between the columns painted on the walls of the room, paying homage to the goddesses and god Athena, Artemis, and Hermes.
Here's Artemis. Between and around these larger scenes and paintings are painted frolicing cherubs and beautifully detailed stonework.

This room is just absolutely gorgeous. The display cases in this room and the next contain manuscripts, letters, photographs, and other Dvořák related items. Here's a list of some of the most notable things I saw:

- a post mortem mold of Dvořák's right hand
- his writing materials
- a photo of the Joachim Quartet
- the first page of the manscripts to...
- the second movement of the New World Symphony
-the Cello Concerto
- the Violin Concerto
- The Violin Sonatina
- the third movement of the American Quartet.

All in all, I'm very glad we went. I can't believe I almost went to Praha without seeing it. I bought an artists sketch of the house/museum. An impulse buy, I freely admit, but something I will treasure forever. After our stop in the gift shop, we spent a few moments in the garden snapping pictures despite the rain. The garden was not terribly elaborate but was simple and elegant, with three statues and a small courtyard.