Valdštejnská Palac Zahrada

At the end of October, my mother came to visit me for ten days. We saw numerous sights and attractions during her short visit, of course, due to my impeccable tour guiding skills. I even made it official by creating a travel itinerary for the entirety of her stay!

One of our first destinations was Valdštejnská Palac Zahrada, or the Wallenstein Palace Gardens located in Prague. It is said to be the largest and most beautiful of all the palace gardens in the city. 

The palace and its surrounding garden was commissioned during the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) by the Hapsburg general and Czech nobleman Albrecht z Valdštejna (Albrect von Wallenstein in German). Although the war spurred from religious conflict, it ultimately became an egotistical battle for power among rulers in Central Europe (as usual). Valdštejna was virtually a double agent. During the war, he worked for both sides in order to see whom he could reap the most benefits from at the time. Ultimately, someone must have discovered his motives because he was murdered in his bedroom in 1634. Today, the palace is the Czech Republic's Senate building.

Peacocks aimlessly wonder around the palace gardens throughout the day. Unfortunately, the peacocks, who are males, only show their train (opening their feathers) during mating season in the late spring/summer. The peacocks try to impress the peahens (females) with the intricate designs of their trains, in hopes that one will fall for him and produce offspring.

Peacocks are actually very peaceful, tame animals. He didn't mind getting his picture taken with mom at all.

Throughout the palace gardens, there are various statues depicting Greek mythology. These were created by the Danish artist, Adriaen de Vries, who was perhaps the best Renaissance sculptor outside of Italy.

This path leads to a theatrical stage, the sala terena, for drama and music, which was inspired by the Greek amphitheaters. However, the architecture is unique. Although the column design was invented by the Greeks, the Italian architect Andrea Palladio designed this building with the unusual pairing of the columns (two columns side by side). 

On the ceiling, there are scenes depicting the famed Trojan War. 

On the far left of the palace garden, there is a bizarre grotto wall. This part of the wall connects to a living owl's cage. It looks like a strange animal's face.

This one reminded me of Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

The wall is full of hidden treasures and creates an illusion of caves and holes, stalagmites and stalactites, and hidden stone goblins, frogs, and snakes among other things.

If you look closely, there's a face hidden in this picture.

A snake here.

A bobcat.

A goblin's face.

A door to a cave.

We spent over half an hour analyzing ever inch of this wall, but we could never find any frogs that were said to be hidden in it! The wall reminded us of our own little Where's Waldo? game. 

My mom really enjoyed this first destination, especially because the weather was so gorgeous. Also, I had three days off from work during her visit. On Monday, October 28, the Czechs celebrated their independence from the Hapsburg empire after World War I. This is the day Czechoslovakia formed, which lasted from 1918-1993. In 1993, Czechoslovakia became two independent nations: the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Then, Tuesday and Wednesday, October 29-30 was the Autumn Holiday for Czech public schools. Yes, I made sure mom's visit coincided with my vacation days :)