Pilsen, home of Pilsner beer and more houses of worship - Czech Blog post #10

 

Sunday, September 28, we took the approximately 90-minute drive to the city of Pilsen, home of Pilsner beer. As I already mentioned on Sunday, the term Pilsner comes from, literally, “from Pilsen”, kind of like someone from America is called an American. 

The city of Pilsen was founded by King Wenceslas II. He was born in 1271, but his father died when he was only seven, so two other guys ruled during his younger years. They were not nice, and Wenceslas had to fight to rightfully serve as king. He finally was able to take over in 1296, but died of tuberculosis at the age of 33 in 1305. He was also king of Poland from 1296 to 1305, as well as Hungary. During his short reign, he built a great empire stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Danube River, as well as having several wives and many children.

This King Wenceslas II is not be confused with Good King Wenceslas, or Wenceslas the first, who was born in 907, and killed by his brother in 935 or 929. He is the patron saint of the Czech Republic and his feast day is September 28, which was the day we visited.

I thought there would be some sort of celebration going on in town, but basically, because it was a national holiday, most places were closed. Only small businesses are allowed to remain open. There had been some sort of goings-on in the town square but it was already shut down by the time we got there.

Anyway, we still saw a lot of things, most of which I don’t have a name for anymore. I should video the entire tour, right? So I can keep track of everything the tour guide says.

I did keep track of a few things. 

This is the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

It is part of the Franciscan monastery, which was established in the early 1300s and contains some of the oldest buildings in Pilsen. 

The gothic St. Bartholomew Cathedral, also built in the 1300s, is huge by comparison and boasts the tallest church tower in the Czech Republic.  

It was also beautiful inside, but somewhat overwhelming.

 

Just a few blocks away is Europe's second largest synagogue, the world's fourth largest synagogue.

The Great Synagogue, with its onion domes atop two high towers, was built in the Moorish-Romanesque style in 1893.

During World War II, it was used for storage by the Nazis. When the few surviving area Jews returned after the war, they struggled to maintain the building and it fell into disrepair during the years of communism in what was then Czechoslovakia.

 

In the last 1990s, it was restored to its former beauty, but with a population of only 200 Jews in the city, only the small winter room is now used for worship.

Last religious house we visited that day was the Church of St. John of Nepomuk.

It was built between 1909 and 1911, and I could tell you more about it, but aren’t you churched out? And just because I was there on a Sunday, doesn’t mean I need to ramble on about all the churches we saw.

Though the summer flowers were dying, I still tried to get a picture of some in each city.