Chram Svateho Vita

The one full day on the entire trip that I was not travelling or giving presentations or embroiled in meetings - and thus able to devote myself to shameless sight-seeing - was the Friday after Thanksgiving. So I spent the day running all over the Prague Castle and the Mala Strana. One of the highlights was definititely visiting St. Vitus's Cathedral (Chram Svateho Vita). Even if I've been somewhat spoiled by Notre Dame and the cathedral in Toledo, Spain - it was still an awe-inspiring cathedral. Some highlights wer the sarcophagus of St. John of Nepomak (the one who was chained and tossed off the Karluva Most - and whose statue is the good luck charm on the bridge). Accroding to legend - and those determined Catholics will make up anyting to win an area back from the troublesome Protestants - at one point when his body was exhumed his tongue was found intact and pumping with blood. The tongue still has its own reliquary. The Valdstejnska Kaple (Wallenstein Chapel) is impressive. Not surprisingly, the Savatovaclavska Kaple (Chapel of St. Wenceslas - the good king of Christmas carol fame) is splendid. I guess his evil brother Boreslav (sort of like Boremir in Tolkien, I guess) owed it to Wedceslas to bury him here after killing him (he was initially buried in a church at Stara Boleslav - near where Boreslav killed him - but too many miracles associated with his remains pressured Boreslav into moving his brother's body to St. Vitus.