Kroměříž

~After my tour of Liberec and hiking around in Prachov Rocks, my seminar group spent a day at Charles University attending lectures by information science faculty and professionals. Although I haven't mentioned it earlier, our guides throughout the seminar were students at the University in the library and information science program. One of the guides, Richard, had to leave when we reached Prachov Rocks. Since it was his last day of being our tour guide, Dr. Barreau, our faculty adviser from UNC, presented him with a UNC t-shirt upon which was written, "There's Only One Carolina" (Charles University...University of North Carolina...get it?).

Anyway, when the lectures were over, we toured the collection of "Libri Prohibity". When I saw this on my schedule, I was excited, because I planned to write my paper on the Index of Prohibited Books, and I thought this would be a great time to do some research. However, the "Libri Prohibiti" library turned out to be an archive of books and publications suppressed during the Communist rule of Czechoslovakia, and had nothing to do with Church suppression of literature. Still, it was interesting to see some of the ingenious ways that subversive literature was disseminated. For example, I saw tiny books that contained removable magnifying glasses built into their spines.

After a day of lectures, I needed to do something exciting, so I went to another opera, this time at the National Theater, one of the most important cultural venues in the country:

^ The National Theater (Narodni Divaldo), one of the three major opera venues in Prague. The National (as it's known) was finished in 1881 and is adjacent to the Vltava River, which bisects Prague.

^ Photography is prohibited inside the opera house, but when has that stopped me? The above photograph was taken from my seat; as you can see, I was very high up but had a great view of the stage (and it only cost about five dollars! and they say opera is expensive...). I'm glad I didn't get stuck behind that pillar on the left.

^ The National Theater is a work of art, both inside and out. Almost every surface is decorated in some way.

The opera I saw at the National Theater was Falstaff, an 1893 opera adaption of Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor", adapted by Giuseppe Verdi. Ivan Kusnjer had the lead role as the fat, womanizing Sir John Falstaff, and he was a brilliant actor. As with most traditional opera, Falstaff was in Italian, with Czech and English subtitles. You can read a review of the Falstaff opera here from the Prague Post.

The next day, my seminar group again boarded the bus and set out for the city of Kroměříž (sounds like: Kro-mere-itz). As you can see on the map to the right, the city is in the far east of the Czech Republic, several hours away from Prague by bus.

^ Our first stop in Kroměříž was the public library, which has won all sorts of awards for being one of the best public libraries in the country. Staff members there talked to us about their initiatives to get more people to use the library, and what kinds of programs and materials they have.

^ The library has a large collection of music on CDs, which are very popular items to check out. The library in Liberec also had a large CD collection.

^ The library also has a great kid's area with toys and magazines.

After eating lunch at a restaurant, my group toured Kroměříž Castle, which was a palace for successive regional Archbishops. The castle (now a museum) and its formal gardens are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

While in the castle, we toured the art gallery, which contains many famous paintings and bizarre sculptures. We also saw the library and the gardens.

^ This room holds a collection of ancient coins and medallions. Some of them are real, while others are reproductions.

^ The ceiling of the room with the coins. The castle has been badly damaged by fire in the past, and I saw fire extinguishers prominently mounted on the walls of every room.

^ The castle libraries hold over 30,000 volumes, locked behind thin metal grilles.

^ An interesting piece of artwork in the bishops' throne room.

^ Some Czenglish outside of the art gallery.

^ The main library in the castle. Everything here was very ornate and centuries old.

^ A closer look at one of the large globes.

^ The family crest of one of the bishops: a ship and three stars, quartered.

^ As with most of the Baroque libraries I'd seen so far in the Czech Republic, this one had an ever-popular secret door. Actually, it had two: one with a staircase to the second floor, and the one you see above, which opens to a hidden vault that held the Prohibited Books.

^ The secret book vault!

^ I'm reading a book once banned by the Church, a geometry book by Isaac Newton. It's filled with shocking, heretically blasphemous mathematical secrets! Or at least that's my guess, since it's in Latin.

^ Newton's textbook had an interesting fold-out chart of mathematical formulae and diagrams.

^ This massive tome is Bible translated into Czech, which was once strictly prohibited by the Chruch and grounds for excommunication if you read it.

In the U.S., you'd never be able to play around with books this old and rare. You'd have to fill out forms, get special permission, wear gloves, and examine the book in a designated climate-contolled room with video surveillance for a strictly-limited period of time. But in the Czech Republic, the attitude of our castle guide seemed to be, "Eh, you're library students. Here, hold these."

^ The library from the second floor walkway.

~Coming next: the underground wine-cellars, the wine-tasting party, and the formal gardens of Kroměříž.