Prague's Architectural Details Up Close

My husband was a great sport while we were in Prague. Every few steps, I was in awe of some new architectural detail I wanted to stop and admire. Below are examples of three buildings from afar, and then their ornamental details shown up close.

The buildings seen from our hotel window in New Town. 

A building where I found an ATM machine to get Czech Korunas (crowns). 

New Town Hall. 

The Gargoyles of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague

St. Vitus Cathedral sits atop Castle Hill in Prague. The Gothic structure dominates the Prague skyline and is often thought to be Prague Castle itself, but technically it's just one of the many buildings inside the Prague Castle complex. Cathedral construction began under the rule Charles IV in 1344, designed by French architect Matthias of Arras, then German architect Peter Parler. It took six centuries to complete.

It was a stormy October day when I walked across the Charles Bridge and up to the Prague Castle complex. A perfect day for visiting the gargoyles perched high on the cathedral.

--Gigi

Mysterious Prague

I'm back from a trip to Prague and Paris. There were so many gargoyles and other mysterious settings that I'll be spending the next couple of months posting photos from those cities.

To kick things off, here are a few photos of Prague that give a sense of how there are beautiful mysterious details just about everywhere you look.

View of gorgeous architecture out the window of our Prague hotel.

Closeup of the building across from the hotel.

Views of the city. 

An architectural detail outside the H&M in Wenceslaus Square.

Getting lost one afternoon, we stumbled upon this church in a beautiful square.

A gargoyle on the church.

The top of New Town Hall. 

Next week, I'll begin a more in-depth look at specific locations in Prague, including Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, the Klementinum (national library), Vysehrad, and the stunning Art Nouveau architecture that spans the city.

--Gigi

Saving my Old Photos of Prague

It was over a decade ago that I visited Prague. That was before I switched to digital cameras, and I shot two rolls of 35mm film during the few days I spent in the city. I was shooting high speed black and white film, which doesn't play nicely with airport x-ray machines. Many of my photos from Prague were damaged. The photo immediately below is one of my favorite undamaged photos from my trip to Prague. But now that I've been spending time going through my old negatives, it occurred to me that I could attempt to salvage some of the prints in Photoshop. Digital salvation isn't as good as the real thing, but it has still been fun to see the foggy prints come back to life. The second and third images below show two photos I'm in the process of restoring: the stone detail of the Charles Bridge and the city lit up at night.

Shooting digital brings its own challenges. While the images on memory cards won't be damaged by x-ray machines, they can still get corrupted, as one of my friends learned the hard way recently. And  even though you can fit hundreds of photos onto a memory card, you need to remember to download the photos so you don't lose them if anything happens to your camera or card. I've got over a hundred photos on my camera right now, so I need to follow my own advice.


 —Gigi