Yr. Atheist Tourist: The Defenestration Of Prague

[onager]

As most of you know, since I have shamelessly bragged about it all over DU, last week I had my quarterly Vacation From Egypt. I spent 4 days in Vienna and 4 days in Prague. (The way this works: every quarter of the year I have to go somewhere on vacation. My employer does not care where I go, but pays round-trip airfare from Cairo to London.)

Over in the Skeptics group I talked about touring the Vienna Technical Museum on my birthday, which probably shows why I never re-married...

But in Prague, one of my personal highlights was seeing the actual window where The Defenestration Of Prague happened.

For the whole story, just Google that term. But basically, in 1618, the Pope and the staunch Catholic Habsburg rulers of Prague decided to crack down on Protestants and other free-thinkers. They were messing with the Sacred Religious Franchise.

The Pope sent 2 emissaries to meet with the Czechs in Prague Castle. The Czechs unceremoniously tossed the Pope's reps out of a window.

They survived, which brings us to the funniest part of the story:

The Catholics claimed they were lowered to safety by some convenient angels who happened to be hanging around Prague Castle.

The Czechs said their survival was considerably more...earthy. They only survived because they landed in a large pile of horse shit. How's THAT for a metaphor?

:rofl:

The punch line of that story is,unfortunately, not funny at all. The Defenestration Of Prague led to the Thirty Years War which dragged on until 1648 and devastated Europe, especially Germany.

Like all gawking tourists in Prague, I spent a lot of time chomping on outstanding pork products and guzzling Giant Cheap Beers in Old Town Square.

The square is dominated by a statue of Jan Huss and his followers. Those of us who stayed awake in freshman history remember Huss as the reformer who was protesting Catholicism a century before Luther. Huss went to a convocation in Rome under a passport guaranteeing safe passage. So naturally he was burned at the stake by the Pope.

Huss's statue may be the most censored work of art in history. From 1938-1945, the Nazi occupiers of Czechoslovakia draped the statue with swastika banners to hide it. During the Communist era, it was swaddled in black cloth.

Putting narrow religionism to one side, the Huss statue represents the power of thinking for yourself.

I don't think I need to rant one second more on that subject. Not in this group!

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. And now, the Czech Republic may be the most atheist country in Europe

http://atheism.about.com/b/2006/02/15/czech-republic-most-atheist-country-in-europe.htm

An independent streak in thinking, it seems.

[onager]

3. Thanks! That was a great article.

I especially loved this quote, and what I saw seems to bear it out:

I’m a nonbeliever. It’s connected to our history. Religion limited the freedom of the people. I don’t see a difference between the Communists and the Catholics. They each want people to comply with their ideals...

In another post, I talked about visiting the hilarious and horrifying Museum Of Communism in Prague. It sells postcards etc. created from old Communist propaganda posters, with new slogans added by Czech artists and wiseasses:

You couldn't buy laundry soap. But you could get your brain washed!
It was a time of shiny, happy people. The shiniest of all worked in the uranium mines.

Here's another thing I noticed about Prague. It's tied to one of my own completely subjective, cranky and probably irrational beliefs: I think you can tell a lot about a place just by the number of bookstores in it.

Prague seems to have a bookstore, generally a huge two-story one, on every street. I could have spent my entire vacation just browsing in bookstores (and nearly did). I even found a big store that specialized in books on cars, aircraft and military history (and comics!). Its name translates in English as "Napalm."

[and-justice-for-all]

5. I love it....

"Perhaps the most telling symbol of this is St. Vitus Cathedral, the Gothic centerpiece of Hradcany Castle. The Roman Catholic Church wants to regain control of it. The government, however, views it as a museum for the past and wants to keep it that way. A fitting state of affairs, it seems to me."
http://atheism.about.com/b/2006/02/15/czech-republic-most-atheist-country-in-europe.htm

[YankeyMCC]

2. That's a great story

I mean your employer pays for your round trip vacation airfare!

Oh and the Defenestration story was good too. ;)

Seriously, thanks for the post now I'm going to do some reading. I've run across descriptions of Prague and it's history pretty frequently lately it is defiantly a place I would enjoy visiting someday.

[comrade snarky]

4. Get there!

My wife and I have been there twice, pound for pound it is the most beautiful city I've ever seen. If you love architecture, history, art, pork or beer you should go.

Best sausages in the world in the street stands at the bottom of Vensislas square. Still cheap too! Oh they're not "good" but they are soooooo good. I want one right now with a cup of mulled wine. Ah, that's the start of a good evening.

We had to find the defenestration window, Kafka's house and the arm in St James cathedral. Looks like a little black stick. The story goes that a robber came in and a statue of the virgin Mary grabbed him and wouldn't let go until they cut off his arm. Since it was a miracle (and a warning) they chained it over the door where it still hangs today.

Even though I'm an atheist I still love a spooky story place and Prague is full of em.