The Sex Machines Museum (Prague, Czech Republic)

We often enjoy quirky, off-beat museums, so we made time to visit two museums listed as part of "Eccentric Prague" in one of our guide books: The Museum of Torture Instruments and the Sex Machine Museum. I didn't take pictures at the torture museum -- not only was the content disturbing, but I wasn't sure about the historical accuracy of the signage or the provenance of the actual implements being shown.

But I did take photos at the Sex Machines Museum -- after all, being a sex educator, this is work related for me. (Does this make my whole trip a tax write-off?) This is the third sex-related museum we've been to -- we've seen the Museum of Sex in NYC and the Erotic Museum of Barcelona. The Sex Machine Museum in Prague was good, although I would have liked more detailed signage to provide context for the items shown. The museum exhibits included a variety of sex aids, including some elaborate mechanical sexual furniture, as well as anti-masturbation machines and clothing, chastity belts, and BDSM equipment and accessories.

[Note:  If you are offended by frank discussions or depictions of sexuality, you may not wish to read further.]

Municipal House and the Jewish Quarter (Prague, Czech Republic)

Municipal House (Obecní dům)

Just a few blocks from our hotel is the grand Municipal House, one of the finest examples of Prague Art Nouveau. It was built on the site of the former royal palace in the early 20th century and a number of artists contributed to its design and decoration, including Alfons Mucha. It currently houses civic functions, a ballroom and the Smetana concert hall.

We were only able to look at the public areas of the building, as we couldn't make it to one of the daily tours, so we didn't see the paintings by Mucha in Mayor Hall. But we did spend a solid morning at the Mucha museum a couple of blocks away, poring over his posters, paintings, and sketches, as well as watching a film about his life. He is often best remembered for the work he did in Paris, so I did not know how much he worked for the creation of an independent state and recognition of the history and culture of those in Czechoslovakia. He was pleased to provide his work to a number of buildings in Prague and he spent years finishing his Slav Epic. He was among the first to be arrested by the Nazis after they invaded and it broke his health, as he died shortly after being released. 

Municipal House (Obecní dům)

There was beautiful metal work in the outdoor railings as well as around the elevator in the lobby. I'm sparing you the photos of the elevator grille I took. Seriously, though, would one ever get tired of this beauty?

Old Town (Prague, Czech Republic)

Lokál (Prague, Czech Republic)

Our first night in Prague, we had dinner at Lokál, a restaurant/beer hall which features Czech cuisine. It was very loud and a bit smoky (even in the non-smoking section), but the food was tasty. The table next to ours was celebrating some special occasion, perhaps a birthday, as they brought a cake as well as ordering lots of beer. Sadly, they didn't offer us any cake.

I liked the designs scratched into the wood paneling (lit from behind, they glowed). We decided this might count as an example of sgraffito (a Renaissance technique of creating designs by scratching into a surface to reveal a different color or tone underneath).  Both Q and I remember doing crayon sgraffito as children; I put down colored crayon markings and then covered the entire page with black crayon (a tedious process that kept me occupied for some time -- looking back, I can see why my mother encouraged this activity).  Then I used a pin to scratch through the black crayon, revealing the colored crayon underneath.  Sgraffito!  (I wonder, would reverse appliqué be a kind of textile sgraffito?)

Church of Our Lady Before Týn

After our dinner, we wandered around the Old Town (Staré město) area, walking by In Utero, a large sculpture of a pregnant woman, one of the many David Černý sculptures in and around Prague.

We found our way to the Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí), which has been Prague's main public square since the 10th century. We walked through the square virtually every day we were in Prague, and it was always full of people. We saw a variety of musicians as well as some dancer/contortionists, in and amongst the throngs of tourists. That first night we were treated to a women's chorus (which brought back fond memories of when I sang with the Anna Crusis Women's Choir), although I have no idea what the women were singing, as it was (presumably) in Czech.

The Church of Our Lady Before Týn, with its Gothic spires, was not only dramatic at night and beautiful inside by day (no photos allowed, alas), but it also provided a terrific landmark to orient us as we walked around Old Town. The church was built in the 15th century. The interior is Baroque in style and contains the tomb of Tycho Brache, the famous Danish astronomer who died of a burst bladder, being too polite to leave the royal table to relieve himself. Let that be a lesson to you.

The Art Deco Imperial Hotel (Prague, Czech Republic)

The foyer in the Art Deco Imperial Hotel (Photo by Q)

Our hotel in Prague was absolutely beautiful. The Art Deco Imperial Hotel was built in 1914, and combines the architectural styles of Art Deco, cubism and Art Nouveau. The hotel interior is full of gorgeous tile work, such as this bas-relief in the foyer that reflects Egyptian motifs. The building is listed as a Czech National Monument. 

Hats! at the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków

As I perused the folk costumes at the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków, I was enchanted by the elaborately decorated hats.  I've written before about how I used to wear and collect hats.  Although I don't collect hats any more and rarely wear them, I guess I still have some inner hat lust that emerged at the sight of these beauties.

More than most accessories, hats seem full of symbolic and cultural significance.  As we were traveling, we visited synagogues, where Q was required to cover his head, and cathedrals, where he was asked to remove his hat to uncover his head.  Wearing hats can denote respect or disrespect.  Historically, women's hats have often been derided as silly fashion accoutrements, and yet a woman wasn't considered fully dressed without an appropriate hat.  Each type of hat has its own meaning -- the cap, the fedora, the bowler, all call to mind different situations and different types of people. (In one episode of the British sitcom, Are You Being Served?, they discuss specific rules about who is allowed to wear which type of hat, based on their rank in the company, for example.)  Consider this quote from Bella Abzug:

I began wearing hats as a young lawyer because it helped me to establish my professional identity. Before that, whenever I was at a meeting, someone would ask me to get coffee. -- Bella Abzug

The hats at the Ethnographic Museum seemed more like the kind one would wear on festive occasions, rather than an everyday accessory.  But as the museum signage notes, folk costumes carry a great deal of meaning about one's social place, so without a more detailed understanding of traditional Polish culture, I can't speak to the cultural significance of the hats.  But I can enjoy the artistry and adornment they represent. 

Delightful Details: Embellishment at the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków

When I'm looking at clothing in museums, I'm always on the lookout for Delightful Details -- those little touches that make all the difference in the garment.  I'm particularly drawn to embellishment:  Embroidery, beading, and other types of surface design make my heart sing.  The Polish folk costumes at the Ethnographic Museum were full of embellishment and I tried to capture as many details as possible while I was there.  There is so much inspiration here -- I am excited about the idea of translating these folk designs into more contemporary clothing embellishment and textile art.

Remember that you can click on the photos to enlarge them.  (My apologies for the quality of some of the photos -- it's hard to get good photos in museums at times.)  

This vest features seed beads and sequins to create floral designs and shirt buttons (they look like mother-of-pearl to me) to outline the petals at the bottom of the vest.  I also like the triangle points at the top of the vest, which create an interesting neckline. 

The Ethnographic Museum (Kraków, Poland)

Folk costumes at the Ethnographic Museum (Kraków, Poland).

The next day we spent the morning at the Rynek Underground museum (as I mentioned in an earlier post) and then walked back to the Kazimierz district to see the Ethnographic Museum, housed in the former town hall building.

The museum had reconstructed interiors and models of homes and workshops (e.g., a fulling mill), tools and implements related to agricultural work and craft, and displays of folk art, such as nativity scenes (more szopka!), decorated eggs, and a special exhibition of woodcuts. However, I was mostly interested in the costumes.

The museum had a whole room devoted to folk costumes, and I spent a happy hour or so there, taking photos of costumes and embellishment details. Luckily, there was also a comfy sofa, so that Q could sit and wait for me to be done ooh-ing and ah-ing over the costumes.

The exhibit also had a nice general summary of Polish folk costume, noting that: "Costume was of primary importance in folk culture. It helped to determine social status, area of residence, marital and financial status of a person wearing it. The function of a festive attire made people spare no effortmor [sic] expense on it. Costume is one of the leading elements in folk art."

See? My interest is justified, both at an artistic and anthropological level.

Wawel Hill & the Jewish Quarter in Kazimierz (Kraków, Poland)

Wawel Cathedral (Kraków, Poland)

We had another beautiful day to explore Wawel Hill, the site of Wawel Castle and Wawel Cathedral. This Gothic cathedral held coronations, royal funerals and entombments for centuries.

The tower on the left is a clock tower, topped by a Baroque spire (18th century) and statues of saints Wacław, Adalbert, Stanislaw, & Kazimierz. The tower on the right is a bell tower.

But behind it (not visible from this angle) is Zygmunt/Sigismund Tower which holds the Zygmunt/Sigismund Bell, the largest historic bell in Poland. It is 2m high, 2.5m in diameter and weighs 11 tons (the clapper alone weighs 350kg). It takes eight strong people to ring the bell. We walked up the twisty and narrow stairs to see it and it is indeed huge and heavy-looking. You can see the bell and hear how it sounds here.

Photos were prohibited inside the Cathedral, so I can't show you the gorgeous stained-glass windows. But you can see some nice photos of the interior of the cathedral here.  

Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oświęcim, Poland)

As we were planning our trip to Poland, we knew that we needed to include some historical sites related to WWII and the Holocaust, as these are significant aspects of Polish history.  Kraków itself escaped much of the bombing that flattened cities like Warsaw, allowing its medieval architecture to remain intact (as we saw in Old Town).  But it was just outside of Kraków, in Auschwitz-Birkenau, that the Nazis first experimented with the gas chambers that would become the "final solution."  The camps are now a memorial and museum; we put this on our must-see list of sights.  (We had hoped to see the Schindler Factory museum, as well, but didn't manage to find time to get there.)  We took a bus from Kraków to Oświęcim, a small town where former Polish army barracks became Auschwitz and where the Nazis built the Birkenau extermination camp, using the forced labor of those brought to the camps.

These birds greeted us as we arrived at Oświęcim to see the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial & Museum. I couldn't identify the species of bird, although they seemed vaguely pigeon-like. We had a quick bite to eat on the benches outside the museum, waving away bees, before we embarked on the four hour tour of the camps.

Wieliczka Salt Mine (Poland)

Sculpture in the Chapel of St. Kinga in the Wieliczka Salt Mine

After exploring Old Town in Kraków, we took a bus trip out to see the Wieliczka Salt Mine.  The Wieliczka Salt Mine has been in operation from the 13th century (although at this point there is no salt being mined; miners work to maintain the structures of the mine). Legend has it that the salt in the mine was the dowry of Princess Kinga, who became the patron saint of salt miners. The mine is enormous -- 300 km over 9 levels (but the tours only include the upper three levels). The tour includes displays of how salt was mined as well as the amazing sculptures created from salt by the miners.

The mine contains a number of chapels, but the St. Kinga chapel is the most impressive. It is a huge chamber, full of detailed sculptures and bas-reliefs made from rock salt (including a replica of The Last Supper and a statue of Pope John Paul II). The sculptures in this chapel were made over the course of 30 years by just a few of the miners in their spare time. The artistry is exquisite. You can see more of the sculptures here.