Prague Journal

Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Today commemorates the Martyrdom of Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake on this day in 1415. Hus was the most important 15th-century Czech religious Reformer, and his movement anticipated the Lutheran Reformation by a full century. He was embroiled in the bitter controversy of the Western Schism for his entire career, finaly to be convicted of heresy at the Council of Constance and burned at the stake. Jan Hus (John Huss) was born in Bohemia in about 1371. He received a master’s degree from Charles University in Prague in 1396, became a professor of theology in 1398, was ordained to the priesthood in 1400, was made rector of the University in 1402, and in 1404 received a degree in theology. Most people who come to Prague remember the distinctive art nouveau monument to Jan Hus in the Old Town Square.
Eva and I decided to skip the morning conference sessions and instead walk around Brno and take a tour of Špilberk castle. Relatively little is left of the original Gothic castle of the 13th-15th century (basically only in the eastern wing), although its fundamental character is intact. Among the parts that have best preserved their original appearance are some of the ground floor spaces, including the passageway with ornamented stone benches. The majority of the present buildings—the southern, western and northern wings, as well as the central tract dividing the former large courtyard into two sections—only came into existence with the extensive conversion of the fortress into a prison in the 1830’s. Unfortunately, this radical reconstruction wiped out practically all that remained of the original medieval castle and its later building projects, with the exception of the eastern wing. Špilberk thus acquired its present appearance, which even the relatively extensive reconstruction executed by the German army was not able to alter. Apart from minor additions and complements, they basically unified the castle in a certain architectural manner, and only demonstrated their identity clearly in the interiors (staircase) and historicist details. It was the latest reconstruction in 1995-2000, particularly involving the eastern wing, that substantially interfered with the appearance of Špilberk, so well-known from engravings, paintings and old photographs. The present distinctly “Gothic” appearance of the whole eastern wing is a result of a rather problematic and controversial reconstruction, executed—after extensive construction and historical research—in 1995-2000 and designed by Zdeněk Chudárek. On the ground floor of the western wing, archaeologists have revealed part of the foundations of a massive cylindrical tower, which are displayed with exhibits of the architectural history of the fortress. We went to the exhibition floor that gave a history of the castle and of the area.
We also toured the casemates, rows of prison cells and torture chambers accessible through tunnels that extended well beyond the fortress above. The casemates originally served as shelter for a garrison comprising some 1,200 men, as well as armaments and other materials should the fortress come under artillery bombardment. Mainly, they were used to store military equipment. But the Emperor Joseph II decided, in 1783, that a prison ought to be created for felons and the most dangerous criminals, so he ordered the reconstruction as a prison of the upper floor of the northern casemates in 1784. The following year, under Leopold II, the upper level of the southern casemates was also transformed as a prison. After extensive damage by Napoleon’s army in 1809, the fortress lost its military significance and was converted to a civilian prison. Under Emperor Franz Joseph I, the castle was used as a barracks and military jail from 1855 until the Nazi occupation.
Eva and I walked to the center of town to see the town square, some of the Art Nouveau houses, and Gothic and Baroque churches. We walked through the “cabbage market” square to St. Thomas Church and the magnificent Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul on Petrov Hill. The Baroque Parnas fountain in Cabbage Market square was built in 1690-95 on the site of a Renaissance fountain from 1597. It is the most valuable piece of Baroque sculpture in Brno; an isolated example of Baroque naturalism and illusion of considerable dramatic force. In the center of the fountain is built a three-sided craggy rock. Sitting on top of the north-eastern side is an allegoric statue leaning against a quiver with arrows. Beneath it is a winged dragon. On the north-western rock sits the figure of Babylonia with a crown on her right foot and to her right is a winged lion. On the southern rock is the allegoric statue of Persia with a horn of plenty and underneath to the right a bear crawls out from the rock. At the top of the grotto stands the statue of Europe triumphantly holding a scepter over a vanquished dragon. The whole structure comes to life with miniature creatures and dragons.
We walked through Svobody (Freedom) Square, with its Marianne Column, erected to commemorate the end of the plague; past the Noble Women’s Palace, or Ladies’ Institute, so-called School of the Virgin Mary, dedicated to the upbringing of orphaned daughters of noblemen. We had wanted to visit the synagogue, but did not have time.
The modern Jewish community in Brno dates from around 1856 and the founding of the Jewish Society. The building of the so-called Great Synagogue was already finished in 1855. After building and opening the synagogue, a new Board was elected and Phillip Gomperz became the new chairman, and Leopold Löw (the famed Rabbi Löw) from Szegedin was engaged as the first official rabbi. The population of Jews in Brno was about 2,230 people in 1857, the whole city of Brno had 59,819 inhabitants. For comparison, there were only 135 Jews in Brno in 1834. The right to collect taxes from Jews was reserved only for Jewish communities. That’s why they applied in 1858 for full-right registration of the community, which was permitted in 1859. Baruch Placzek was accepted as rabbi in 1860, and he served in this position for many years. A religious school opened in Josefská Street 49 in the 1861. From the beginning, 77 boys and 76 girls attended the school. The school’s enrollment quickly exceeded its capacity, and many children, especially from less wealthy families, were not accepted because of a lack of space.
The period between the two World Wars was the best time in the history of the Jewish community of Brno. By 1938, there were around 12,000 members of the Jewish community. About 10,000 people were deported from Brno during the Second World War to Terezin (Theresien Stadt) and further to Auschwitz and elsewhere. Less than 1000 of them survived. There were about 800 members of the Jewish community in Brno in 1960 and there are slightly less than 300 people now. Eva and I did not have time to see the synagogue or the “Chapel of Rest” cemetery. The cemetery was established in 1852 and was enlarged in 1911 and 1936. Gravestones from closed cemeteries in the vicinity of Brno dating from the 17th to 19th centuries were brought here, but the vast majority of graves date from the 19th and 20th centuries.
We hurried back to the university so that we could attend one of the last sessions before heading to the bus back to Prague. We left the session a bit early, to allow plenty of time to retrieve our bags at the hotel and get to the bus station in time for the 4:00 bus. We had no trouble getting there on the tram, and even had time for coffee and ice cream sundaes in the lobby café at the Grand Hotel across the street from the Main Station. Our 2 ½-hour bus ride was spent productively, going over the latest version of a case study so we can send the revised draft to the journal this week.
Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong is in the leader’s yellow jersey for the second day in a row. The Discovery Channel team won the team time trial when David Zabriskie crashed into a barricade in the final moments of the race, putting Team CSC in second place. Today, even though Lance wanted to start the race without the yellow jersey on his back – as a gesture of sportsmanship to honor the former bearer, who lost it when he crashed yesterday – wore the jersey to another win, retaining the overall race lead. Spared the crashes and strokes of bad luck that have befuddled others, Armstrong enjoys breathing space between his main rivals in his quest for a seventh straight Tour victory. Tomorrow is a rest day.

posted by JWinn @ 10:53 PM