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Prague,
hundred spires mother of the towns, is surrounded by legends,
tales and myths from its very beginning.
Every corner, street or house is connected with some story.
Some of these fables were born at the nightfall in taverns
and some them are from ancient history
and tells about life and works of incredible masters...
Old Prague Legends
On the Old Town Square
is located probably the most important monument of the city,
and maybe of the whole Czech Republic.
Famous all around the world
and every day observed by the eyes of tourists and local people
Orloj
Orloj is binded with many tales
and full of mystery is even its creation.
The fable says
that Orloj was built in 15th century by master Jan Hanus,
mathematician, astronomer and professor of Prague's university.
When Orloj was presented to the people of Prague,
it made wonder not only the simple citizens,
but even an great students of astrology,
who declared that they have never seen something like this before.
A lot of watchmakers were affraid to work as Orloj's clockworker
and they even said,
that if someone else would like to do it instead of master Hanus,
he would surely become crazy.
The news about amazing new Orloj
rapidly spread across the whole country and world,
everybody visited Prague to see the wonder
and a lot of foreigners begged master Hanus
to make another Orloj in their own cities.
When the mayor and elders heard about it,
they started to worry,
becouse the Prague's Orloj would have lost its originality.
That was their reason to create an evil plan...
One night, when Hanuš was working on some new schemes,
three masked men sneaked to his house
and they dazzled him with fire from fireplace.
Then he feinted.
He awoke the day after
when he was found lying on the floor by his pupil.
Master wanted just one thing
to be guided to the machine of Orloj.
When they were there,
he put his hand to the machine
and pulled away one cogged wheel.
Suddenly everything at Orloj stopped
but with that even the heart of master Hanus.
Machine of Orloj measure many types of time:
Old-czech time, which is measured from the dusk,
star time, measured from the position of constant stars,
babylonian time splitting daytime to twelve hours
and finaly a civil time, which is used now.
Orloj also contains plenty of astrological phenomenons
for example, position of sun in one of twelve zodiacal signs,
or what constellation is up or under horizon.
Orloj is decorated by wooden statues and stone reliefs,
which contains a lot of hidden meaning
and are they are hard to understand.
One of the most important statue is golden rooster, whose noise repels the evil.
The evil is symbolized by basilisk on the roof of Orloj.
Also there are moveable statues of miser, Grim Reaper,
Turkman and narcissus
who might be actually a wizard looking to his magic mirror.
Down row contains Archangel Michael with blazing sword,
philosopher, astronomer and recorder
the last three are combination of all knowledge we can find on Orloj.
Every hour Orloj also shows a parade of twelve wooden apostles.
Interesting thing is,
that the first serie of those statues was destroyed during 2nd World War
by artillery grenade, which hit Old town hall.
Present statues were made by Vojtech Sucharda after 1945.
All together is Orloj an amazing scientific and artisitic piece
and an important jewelry od Old Prague.
Another astonishing place is definitely Jewish district Josefov,
where is located one of the oldest synagogue
Old New Synagogue
Legend says that with this building is connected story of great master Rabbi Low
and his opus magnum, golem...
Rabbi Jehuda Low ben Bezazel lived at Jewish town during the rule of Rudolf the Second.
Rabbi knew a lot about Kabala - Jewish magic, nature, math and astrology.
His fame went rapidly throughout Prague
he even visited a king's courtyard
and once he was visited by king himself.
All the people - high and low - were surprised by his talent and powers,
but they had no idea that the biggest miracle is going to happen.
One night Rabbi decided to make himself a magic servant, golem, from clay,
by combining all four elements and an artificial soul in a form of shem,
a small ball with mystical writing.
Golem was able to work as two men together
he served during the meals, chopped wood for campfire
and did every hard work.
But the best was that golem did not need any rest, food or water.
When everything was done,
Rabbi just pulled away the shem and golem froze as a statue.
And when Rabbi needed him again,
he just put shem in him and golem become alive.
But once Rabbi forgot to pull it off
and went to the Old New Synagogue.
He didn't even started with praying
and suddenly neighbors came
and started to yell and shout, that golem become crazy,
destroys everything and no one can get close to him,
because he would be killed by golem.
So Rabbi ran to his house and even from far away he heard all noises and rumbling.
On the court of his house he saw furious golem rebutting the tree.
Rabbi went towards him,
gazed him and pulled his arms against him.
Golem slightly moved and stopped.
Then Rabbi took away forgotten shem and heated golem fell down with rumble.
People were mad at Rabbi, beacause this mess was his fault...
But he didn't say a word, returned to his home
and at the evening he took golem on the attic of the synagogue and left him there.
He decided to never brings him back to life
and after some time golem shattered there in the silent darkness of attic...
Old New Synagogue is one of the oldest synagogues in Europe,
which are still used for ceremonies.
It was created around 13th century
together with Jewish cemetary.
Synagogue was built in the style of early cistercian gothic.
It is a double-nave hall building with cross ribbed vault.
Interesting thing is,
that to every vault they added fifth rib.
At the synagogue is also historical bima
high place at synagogue, which is used for reading Tora
and in the middle of the hall is Aron ha-kodesh, Jewish sanctuary.
Entrance is early gothic portal decorated with motive of grapevine.
A lot of people looked after pieces of golem on the Old New Synagogue's attic,
but if he really was there is mystery even today...
Third legend comes from Prague district Karlov,
where young architect made a deal with the devil to make a masterpiece, that won't be anywhere else...
When Charles IV. Was building New city of Prague, he built churches everywhere...
Once he decided that one of them should be located on the highest place of New city opposite Vyšehrad castle.
An young architect heard those news and send his scheme of the church to the king himself.
King really liked his idea and even some councelors were against it, he made this young man a leader of the construction...
When architect heard about it, he was really happy and started to work immediately.
The biggest wonder of whole construction was a scheme of a stellate dome vault.
Church was still behind the scaffolding and beams and already there were some men
who wonder and make doubts about whole building, saying that it can't be ever finished,
because the vault will collapse and fall.
Although the young architect was sure about his job, their doubts made him wonder if he can really do it.
He did not spend time on the construction, he was stuck at home, drawing and calculating
and every night he was not able to fall asleep.
One starry night he get up and went on the construction.
When he wanted to give up and left the project suddenly he saw a vision of citizens
walking in his finished church, wondering and enjoying all the beauty.
So he told himself, that he has to finish this job, even if he had to make a deal with the devil.
And all of a sudden a real devil appeared.
He told to young architect to sign a deal with his own blood and next day the vault will be finished.
And young man did that and really next day the building was finished even with its amazing vault.
But the scaffolding was still there.
Every worker was affraid to take it down, because they said, that if they will do it, the vault will shatter.
So the architect decided to burn scaffolding down. When he did it he ran away from the church.
Suddenly he heard a great noise. Young man was so scared that the vault fell down so he decided to end his life.
But he didn't know that the noise was just falling scaffolding and his church stayed without any harm.
This gothic church is consists of octagonal nave with stellate vault without support.
Around the church lies new built baroque ledge.
From this time is also the hall, furniture and the stucco.
Some altar paintings are from baroque artist Jan Jiri Heinsch, but the main altar is neo-gothic.
Young architect never saw the beauty of its work and church on Karlov went after centuries through many changes,
but it still has its own magic and originality.
There are many other mystical places in Prague and a lot of different masters lived there,
for example Doctor Faust, Edward Kelly or Tycho de Brahe.
Orloj, golem and Karlov's church still attracted people to this day and those place make from Prague a special place.
But what from those legends based on truth?
And what was added by raving storytellers? One thing is for sure...
Stories of those three masters will stay alive at least as long as Prague itself.