Mucha's Slav Epic in Moravský Krumlov

Most foreign visitors to the Czech Republic will come to recognize the artwork of Alfons Mucha from the many postcards and posters on sale around the centre of Prague and other Bohemian tourist precincts.

Mucha's masterpiece though is not printed on a calendar, a set of beer coasters or a bookmark. It's not even in the Mucha Museum on Prague's Panská ulice. The works of art to which the artist dedicated the best part of his later life are at the other end of the country, in the dim ballrooms and ceremonial halls of the crumbling Moravský Krumlov chateau, just a few kilometres from Mucha's hometown of Ivančice.

Born in July 1860, the young Alfons Mucha soon showed natural talent for music and art. He completed high school in Brno but was refused admittance to Prague's Academy of Art for apparent lack of talent. After moving to Vienna his skills were quickly appreciated and he progressed to a school of graphic arts in Munich and then to Paris, eventually finishing his studies in 1889.

1890's Paris was the epicentre of the art nouveau movement and Mucha's elegant theatre posters and designs earned wide respect. Despite his renown, Mucha left Paris for lack of money and travelled to the United States where he taught painting and sculpture, married, and gained the enduring patronage of wealthy Slavophile Charles Crane.

With Crane's support, Mucha returned to his homeland in 1910, set up studio in a chateau and spent the best part of the next two decades visually recounting the history of the Slavic peoples. Mucha's sublime brushwork follows the Slavic peoples from their original homeland beside the Goths and Huns, through the major stages of their early history, right up to events occurring in his lifetime. The 20th Century collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire brought the independence of Slavic nations like the Serbs, Slovaks, Bohemians and Mucha's own Moravians and forms the subject for the final canvas of the epic series.

The aging Mucha bequeathed the Slav Epic to the Czechoslovakian people and their capital city at the time, Prague, on the condition that an adequate home was found of them and they were accessible to the public. The canvasses were exhibited briefly after their completion, but during the Nazi occupation were hidden in several locations and suffered damage from dampness. Mucha died in Prague on 14th July 1939 from the results of an interrogation by the Gestapo.

In the 1950's the canvasses were brought to the chateau at Moravský Krumlov and restored by a team including Mucha's daughter Jaroslava. From 1963 to 1967 the paintings were progressively returned to public exhibition in the chateau halls and there they have stayed.

In recent years Prague's bureaucrats seem to have remembered the Slav Epic and comprehended the potential it holds for their city's tourism industry. The few abortive attempts at finding a home for the Slav Epic in the city so far have been characterized by treatment of the great artwork as a commodity and a laughable lack of results.

Unfortunately there was no time limit in the artist's will, but my guess is that he didn't intend for his masterpiece to be ignored for the best part of a century and then shuffled into the capital at the first chance of making a quick buck. Mucha's descendants apparently intend to launch legal action to determine the true owner of the canvasses, in light of the fact that the city of Prague has (for seven decades) failed to fulfill the stipulations for ownership of the artworks. Whether the family's intention is to pressure for the city to finally take some action or actually gain ownership for themselves is unclear.

As the situation stands now, the Slav Epic remains in South Moravia on a year-by year basis, which makes it difficult for the chateau authorities to finance repairs and improvements while their only source of income could evaporate at any moment.

The Slav Epic in the chateau at Moravský Krumlov is open to the public from April through October but closes for an hour at lunchtime and all day on Mondays. By public transport, Moravský Krumlov is four hours from Prague, three from Vienna and an hour or less from either Brno or Znojmo. There's accommodation in Krumlov itself, but given the choice I'd prompt for spending the night in nearby Znojmo.

A visit to the Slav Epic is quite a special thing and the only people who go are those who really want to see it. Somehow I don't think it's going to be the same when it gets to the big city.

Related posts: Daytrips from Brno

Znojmo accommodation: Hotels Hostels

Show support: for keeping the Slav Epic in M. Krumlov (on Facebook)

Prague tourists vandalise clock

Interesting article in the news today about a group of foreign visitors to Prague.

The article said that around four o' clock this morning a group of five tourists (two Spaniards, two Americans and one Irishman) paused in front of the town hall and took out their cameras.

A masterwork of 14th century artwork and engineering, the Astronomical Clock is one of only two in the Czech lands and they haven't been making any more since around the end of the Middle Ages. Along with Prague Castle and Charles' Bridge, the Astronomical Clock is one of the most recognisable and invaluable historical monuments not only in the city of Prague but in the entire country.

So no surprise that people might pause in front of it and take out their cameras. These guys though weren't interested in imagining themselves back to medieval Prague or admiring the surface beauty of the carvings and artwork adorning the clock. While four of the group prepared their cameras, the fifth tore the steel top from a nearby rubbish bin and flung it at the clock, severing the arm of the intricately sculpted Astronomer figure.

I guess he thought the photos would look cool on his Facebook page, but to find out for sure we'll have to wait until he's finished explaining it to the Police, who were on the scene within minutes.

*Update-The group of five people were released after being questioned and Police are now searching for an "unknown vandal".

Whatever happened to the idea that when you travel abroad, you should be on your best behaviour because you're an ambassador for your own country?

*If the "unknown vandal" turns out to be Czech, I'll happily concede that the idea may be alive and well. But people who throw rubbish bins at 600 year old sculptures are twats, no matter their nationality.

The best daytrips from Prague

The strategy of using a big city as a base for day trips into the surrounding countryside is a popular one, and there are plenty of interesting destinations within an hour or so of Prague.

Kutná Hora
Most travellers first hear of Kutná Hora in connection with the famous “bone church” in which the skeletal remains of up to 40,000 people have been arranged into decorative shapes such as urns, a coat of arms and a chandelier that contains at least one of every bone in the human body.

The daytrip from Prague is an easy one, with frequent train connections to Kutná Hora main station, from where it’s about 10minutes’ walk through the suburb of Sedlec to the bone church. Don’t make the mistake of turning around and going home once you’ve seen it though, because a short bus ride or 20 minute walk away is one of Bohemia’s most beautiful historic old towns.

St Barbara’s in the centre of Kutná Hora is probably the most spectacular cathedral in the country, the museum of alchemy is excellent and it’s possible to descend six floors down into Kutná Hora’s cold, dark underbelly on a hard-hatted, torchlit tour of the medieval silver mines. If you don’t have that much enthusiasm for sights and activities, the cobbled streets and squares of old Kutná Hora easily support an afternoon’s lazy wandering and there are some good cheap restaurants, bars and cafes serving local drinks and food.

Karlštejn castle
The second really popular daytrip from Prague is to Karlštejn castle, set above a village in the green valley of the Berounka river. Again the daytrip is simple, with dozens of direct trains between Prague and Karlštejn each day. Karlštejn castle was built in the 1300’s to house Charles IV’s collection of holy relics and the Bohemian crown jewels. At 330Kc for the complete tour, it’s not the cheapest daytrip from Prague and as visitor numbers to the upper palace are limited it may require some planning in advance.

Terezín
About an hour north of Prague, not far from the junction of the Ohře and Labe rivers lies an old red brick baroque fortress erected by the Austrians to help guard their lands against the Prussians in the 18th century.

The Austro-Prussian tensions were resolved elsewhere, but Terezín played a key role in a 20th century military conflict, when it was converted by the Nazis into their foremost Jewish ghetto and prison in the Czech lands. The Jewish and Christian cemeteries, former Gestapo prison, concentration camp and Jewish ghetto are all open to the public and their stories are well-told and fascinating, if not especially cheerful. Direct buses from Prague’s Florenc station take about an hour to reach Terezín.

Lidice
Much closer to Prague, but also connected with WWII are the memorial and museum at the former site of Lidice, which was the first village completely wiped from the map by Nazi machine guns, bulldozers and explosives in retaliation for the assassination of Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich by the Czechoslovakian resistance in 1942. Halfway between Prague and Kladno, the memorial is open year round and is an eloquent commentary on the senseless brutality of the Nazi occupation.

Žatec
Czech beer is famous worldwide and Žatec makes an excellent daytrip from Prague for any connoisseur of the amber fluid. Better known abroad under its old German name Saaz, Žatec is the centre of one of the world’s premier hops-growing regions, and the town’s hops museum is a top-notch place to get the full story before you hit a pub to try the award winning local Žatec beer. Even if you’re not into beer, Žatec has a lovely historic old town centre filled with church spires, renaissance arcades and gothic gate towers. Get there before they make the UNESCO-world heritage list and everybody wants to go.

Mělník
Mělník is similar to Žatec in size, age and riverside location, but is the place to go for Bohemian wine. South Moravia is the Czech Republic’s main winemaking region but the one place in Bohemia with the right conditions is the Labe river valley near Mělník. The renaissance chateau or any of the local wine cellars offer wine-tasting but it’s also worth leaving time to explore the charming old town. The lookout tower and bone-crypt of the majestic clifftop church of Sts Peter and Paul, the tour of the catacombs and a visit to the teahouse in the old gothic gate tower are the highlights.

Related posts and resources:
Kutná Hora
Bone churches of Bohemia and Moravia
The Kutná Hora bone church
Free daytrip guide to Kutná Hora with maps
Getting to Kutná Hora
Karlštejn
Charles has left the building
Terezín
Bohemia’s saddest buildings
Getting to Terezín
Lidice
Lidice memorial and museum
Žatec
Žatec Hops museum
Mělník
Mělník
Getting to Mělník

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