Plagues, Epidemics and Memorials - History Repeating Itself

Pestsäule - Plague Column - Vienna Austria

Travel is my passion,  and taking photos of my travels is my favorite hobby.   So when faced with social distancing and the threat of quarantine due to the COVID-19 virus, I find going through my travel photos and thinking of the beautiful places I have visited brings some sort of calmness to the madness all around me right now.  With all of the attention focused on Corona Virus today, I found myself being led to photos I have taken of Plague Memorials in Central Europe.  

Santa Maria della Salute, Venice Italy

Santa Maria della Salute on the Grand Canal in Venice

 In the summer of 1630 and up until 1631 a wave of the plague assaulted Venice killing nearly a third of its population.   As an offering for the city's deliverance from the plague the city vowed to build a church dedicated to Our Lady of Health, Santa Maria della Salute.  The city decided not to dedicate the church just to the plague or a patron saint.  They decided to dedicate it to the Virgin Mary who they believed was the protector of their Republic.  I visited Venice in the spring of 2002.   When I arrived in Piazza San Marco and walked to the water front of the Grand Canal this beautiful basilica dominated the horizon.   

Images of Santa Maria Della Salute

Church of All Saints - Sedlac, Czech Republic

Two years after my visit to Venice, I traveled to Prague in the Czech Republic in 2004.  I returned  again in 2015.  Both times I visited the Kostnice located in the village of Sedlac.   The Kostnice is an Ossuary or Bone Church.   It is named the Church of All Saints.   In all of my travels this is truly one of the most fascinating places I have seen. 

The cemetery and Church of All Saints - Sedlac, Czech Republic

  In the thirteenth century the Abbott of the Monastery in Sedlac was sent to the Holy Land in Jerusalem.  He returned with a mound of dirt believed to have come from Golgotha.  He spread the dirt over the Abbey cemetery.  Because of this dirt this became a very important burial location.  During the fourteenth century the cemetery was filled with bodies from the Black Plague.  A new chapel was built in the fifteen hundreds. Many graves were exhumed for the new chapel and the bones were stored in the basement of the new church.   In 1870 the history of these bodies from the Black Plague takes on a macabre and fascinating turn.   Frantisek Rint was a local woodcarver.  He was employed to organize the old bones that had been laying the basement for all of these years.  The bones were used to decorate the church.  Chandeliers, a chalice and altars were all transformed into bones.  Rint even signed his work by writing his name on the wall with bones.  

Signature of the artist

The plague Column of the Virgin Mary Immaculate in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic

Just a short walk from Sedlac is the village of Kutna Hora.  Located here is a Plague Column.  I have seen  several of these through out Europe.  This one was built as a reminder of the death from the plague of the early 1700's.  There is a statue of Mary on top of the column as on many Plague columns.  Many of these columns were built to honor Mary in hopes for protection from other plagues.  

Trinity Monument - Prague, Czech Republic

The Trinity Monument is another Plague Column in the Czech Republic.  This one is located in Prague's Lesser Town Square.   At one time there was a pillory and gallows here.  So this square is historically associated with death.  But now there is a monument here that memorialized the end of a disease that plagued the city of Prague.  After the outbreak of the early 1700's was finally under control, the city erected this Plague Column.

Pestsäule - Plague Column - Vienna Austria

The Trinity Column in Vienna is located on Graben, one of the main streets in the inner city.  It is one of the better know Plague Columns in Europe.  It was built after the great epidemic of 1679 and is one of the cities great pieces of art often compared to the work of Bernini in Rome.  While I was in Vienna I was not worried about the plague.  My luggage was lost and never arrived.  So I was concerned with buying underwear in a city where I did not speak the language.   I took photos of the monument without really knowing what it represented until I returned home and was doing research on my photos.   At the time of the plague the Habsburg emperor Leopold I fled the city but vowed to erect a mercy column if the epidemic would end. 

I 

.These churches and monuments were erected to memorialize the loss from the great plagues that challenged the western world in their time. They were also created to ask forgiveness for the sins they felt lead to these plagues and in hopes to protect their people from future epidemics. After the horrors of 9/11 we have build great monuments and displayed pieces of the World Trade Center in our major cities across the country. We have one here in Baltimore. In New York we have build a towering sky scraper complex to replace and memorialize the original World Trade Center. I am wondering tonight what will happen at the end of the current world wide pandemic. Will we be inspired to create art and memorial fountains to remember it? Will we learn from our greed and hoarding that is harming us now? Will our current leaders promise to build memorials to our sacrificies. Or will they build great monuments to themselves to brag about their self imagined great accomplishments in fighting this enemy? We will survive. We will recover. But will we learn from our mistakes?

Visiting Karlstyn Castle - May 2004

I was talking with some of my travel friends in a little list I made on Facebook yesterday about our mutual love of photography and travel.   I have been very fortunate in being allowed to travel and see so many fascinating places.  For the start of the new year I have decided to look back at some of the great castles I have seen and share some stories about them. 

One of the first castles I was able to visit was Karlstyn Castle in the Czech Republic.  I had read a lot about the castle when I was preparing for a trip to Prague.  I had read that it was close to Prague and that it was one of the most visited castles in the Czech Republic.  So I was very excited about visiting this castle.  In my mind I had imagined one of the great castles that inspired the castles in the old Disney cartoons.  But I was a little disappointed when I finally got to see Karlstyn Castle.

I was in Prague and had a day to myself to do a day trip out of the city.  The guide book I was using suggested that it was not difficult to reach the castle and suggested skipping the tour groups who would rent bus tours to Karlstyn.  The guide book gave me good directions to the train station where I could buy my tickets to Karlstyn and go on my own without a group of tourists.   .  I was still a novice traveler and was still learning the ins and outs of exploring Euorpe so I was very thrilled with myself for finding the correct train station with no help from anyone else.  The station to Karlstyn was outside of the city center where there was a lot less English spoken than in the city itself.  This should have been my first red flag that I was in trouble.  I walked into the station and went to the ticket window and tried to ask for a ticket to Karlstyn.  I did not think there  would be any problem because there was a photo of the castle in the window at the ticket booth.  I slowly asked for one ticket to Karlstyn.  The ticket agent just looked at me.  I repeated again very slowly "One ticket to Karylstyn.   I still received just a blank faced expression.  Then the ticket agent said to me very rudely "Česká ! Česká !"   Speak Czech.   Now the panic sets in.  I was outside of city center.  No one was speaking English and I had angered the ticket agent.   But I tried again.  I pointed to the photo of the castle on his booths window and raised one finger to indicate I wanted one ticket to go see the castle.  I said politely "One".   The man pointed to me and said again "Česká ! Česká !"   So I gave up.  I took the tram outside of the station back down to city center.  At the tram stop there was a man, who spoke some English, and was selling tickets to go to Karlstyn for the next day.  Defeated, I bought the ticket and took the tour bus the next day.

The tour advertised that it was in seven languages including English, Italian, French.  So I felt comfortable that I would have no problem.  On the day of the tour the tour guide only spoke two languages.  He spoke English and Česká.   The  only people who spoke English on the bus were me, two Australians, and the guide.  Everyone else spoke different languages and they were not happy.  The tour guide handed them printed out information in their language about the tour and asked them to follow along reading as he talked to us in English.  This did not make the three of us very welcome in the group.    After some arguments over the arrangements and the language problems we were on our way.  We arrived to the little village in the photo just above.   The bus parked in the village and we had to walk up a large hill to get to the castle.  It was a good hike and some of the people on the bus were not young so it was difficult for some of them.  We had lunch in Karlstyn and there was a lot of grumbling about the language problems and the hiking.  The three of us who spoke English were the least favorite of the group.  But during the lunch meal the beer started to flow and people stopped grumbling and I did get to meet two Russian couples and have an interesting conversation with our broken languages.  The Italian speaking  members of the tour never did calm down though and were angry for most of the tour.  It did make for an interesting day.

The castle itself was empty inside.  There was not a lot to see.  It was not very exciting at all in my opinion.  I was expecting it to be renovated and beautiful inside.  So I was a bit disappointed.  But it was my first castle.  And one of my first experiences traveling in a foreign country. So my expectations were a little over the top.  I probably would have enjoyed it much more now.   So all was not lost.  All these years later I still prefer not to take guided tours.  I like the challenge of my finding my own way around, trying to communicate with the locals, and not sharing my experience with arguing tourists unhappy with their guide.    I returned to Prague in 2015.   It's much easier today.  It's very touristy.  There is no problem finding train stations or purchasing tickets.  But I am glad I was there to have the experience before the infrastructure was there.  It left me a good story to tell and something I will never forget.  

Historically the Karlštejn Castle was founded by Czech king and Holy Roman emperor Charles IV (Karel IV.) in 1348, the same year when the king founded Prague's New Town and Charles University. The hill-top castle surrounded by forests was built to hold the royal treasures and coronation jewels of the Holy Roman Empire, and served as the king's retreat. The Czech coronation jewels were also kept there for almost 200 years during and after the Hussite wars in the 15th and 16th century

Wine Bars and Embassies - Traveling in 2015

I have had several experiences with embassies while traveling.   I try not to involve myself with embassies and to try to stay clear of the proximity if at all possible.  My first experience with an embassy occured in 2001 in Amsterdam,  While not an actual embassy my story involved the American Consulates Office in Amsterdam which is almost an embassy in my thoughts.  I was robbed on the train from Schiphol Airport traveling into the city of Amsterdam.  A group of you gypsy boys ran into the train, grabbed my travel bag and ran out of the door of the train before I was able to catch them.  It all happened very fast and was very scary for me on only my second trip out of the United States.  I was still a novice traveler and still had a lot to learn about dangers while traveling.  The thieves did not get any of value of to them although the items in the bag were of great value to me. They got my passport and my return plane ticket.  I was able to get a replacement plane ticket, at a cost of course.  But I was in a foreign country with no passport which worried me more than the plane ticket.  I had to go to the American Consulates Office to report the loss of my passport and to place application for a replacement.  I had photos made at an office across the street from the consulates office and three days later I had a new passport presented to me.  Again this was at my expense so the theft was costly to me even without them getting any money or credit cards.

New passports outside the gate of the American Consulates Office in Amsterdam

It was an adventure. After returning home the inconvenience and the initial fear were forgotten and I now had an interesting travel story to share.  My second experience with an embassy was a lot more scarier than losing my passport.

Mark and I traveled to Ireland in 2009.  We have a good friend named Holger Haase who lives in Ireland and used to work for a hotel chain there.  He helped us book our hotel with a significant discount in Dublin, which we appreciated very much.  We landed in Dublin and took a taxi to our hotel.  We wanted to immediately get out and start exploring the area around the hotel.  We left the hotel and started to walk towards St. Stephen's Green.  I had just retired in January 2008.  Mark bought me a wonderful digital movie camera for my retirement gift that we could use on our travels.  I was excited about using it for the the first time.  So as we walked from our hotel I took the movie camera and decided to document out first moments in Dublin.  I did not realize our hotel was in the Embassy district. I had just arrived in the city.  As we crossed the street from our hotel and as I recorded our walk I was stopped abruptly by a uniformed security guard.  He demanded my camera and wanted to know why I was making a movie.  I nervously explained I had just arrived and was making a movie of our first walk in Dublin thinking everything would be alright with my explanation.  However the guard became less friendly and demanded my identification.  It seems I had been making a video of the Israeli Embassy.  After a lot of explanations, and providing not only my passport but my drivers license and home address was I released and allowed to continue my journey.  I put the camera away and walked quickly out of the Embassy district before taking out the camera again.

Mark and I have just returned from a wonderful Christmas vacation in Prague and Budapest.  We really enjoyed exploring the Christmas markets, seeing all of the churches and other sights.  Prague and Budapest are two of the more beautiful cities we have visited.  Our first day in Prague we once more became aware of an Embassy in our presence.  We walked from Old Town Square across the Charles Bridge to the Lesser Town area.  Mark wanted to see the Church of Our Lady Victorious where the famous Infant Jesus of Prague is located.  We found the church easily and were able to explore the church and take some photos of the Infant Jesus of Prague Statue.

The Infant Jesus of Prague inside the Church of Our Lady Victorious

We left the church and decided to walk back to the Church of St. Nichols in Lesser Town Square.  On our way we say a small side street that looked interesting.  We decided to walk up the side street and then on to Lesser Town Square.  As we entered the street we saw a sign for small wine bar at the top of the hill.  This caught our attention and became our main focus.  It was cold and we were ready to take a break, have some warm mulled wine and a snack before continuing our walk.  As we walked up the hill a car turned on to the street and proceeded to drive behind us. Suddenly four uniformed men appeared and stopped the car.  We stepped back on the side walk, as we were not sure what was happening but being nosey we wanted to see what was going on.  The guards looked in the trunk of the car, searched through the car, and then checked under with car with mirrors.  We knew something strange was happening but we were not sure what it was.  Another car turned onto the street behind the car being inspected. Once again the guards stopped the car and inspected it also.  Then I noticed a large American flag flying over out heads.  With our sights on the wine bar we did not notice we were walking past the American Embassy.  Travel today is a lot different that it was in 2001 when I was in Amsterdam.  Times have changed.  The Isis attacks in Paris had occurred just a few weeks before out trip to Prague and safety was on mind.  And being near the American Embassy is probably not the safest place to be walking in a foreign country today.  We talked about maybe turning around and avoiding the Embassy area.  And then we looked at the very appealing wine bar just ahead of us at the top of the hill.  We have traveled to dangerous places before.  We have learned to be cautious and be aware of our surroundings.  And we have learned that sometimes taking risks creates the best memories.  So the wine bar won!  It was directly next to the Embassy.  We sat in the very pleasant bar and had some warm mulled wine and a delicious Czech Christmas Cake for a treat while at the same time watching every car turning on the street being examined for bombs.  All in all it was a good choice and the right decision.  The lady serving us was very pleasant and we enjoyed talking with her.  We never mentioned the Embassy or the bomb squad searches and neither did she.  That is life in 2015.

Mark and Larry choosing to enjoy warm mulled wine 

Vinoteka Wine Bar

Thoughts on Prague - Fred and Ginger - Wars and Bombs - And Learning to Travel

I visited Prague in 2004.  There is much about Prague that I really liked.  It's a fascinating city with a brutal past. Like a lot of European cities Prague suffered tragic bombings during World War II. During the Soviet era Russian troops and tanks marched down Wenceslaus Square to put down an uprising.  Two students set themselves on fire in Wenceslaus Square in protest of the Soviet invasion.  There is a very small memorial to these two men in Wenceslaus Square.  It's very small and close to the ground.  You can walk right past it without realizing it's presence.

The first student was Jan Palach. In August 1968 the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the reforms of Alexander Dubcek's government during what was known as the Prague Spring. The Prague born Jan Palach decided to make a sacrifice of himself in protest of the invasion. He set himself on fire, in Wenceslas Square on January 16, 1969. A month later (on February 25, 1969) another student, Jan Zajíc, burned himself to death in the same place. The memorial to these two men is very small and unassuming. If I had not been looking for the memorial I would have walked right past it without noticing it.




As I walked the streets of Prague I could not help but be amazed at the beauty and the history all around me. And I learned an important lesson from Prague. I was still a some what novice traveler and tourist in 2004. This was only my fourth time to travel abroad. I was still the wide eyed American walking around with his mouth open amazed at all that I could see. But Prague taught me to be aware of what I was looking at and try to understand what was being told to me.


The photograph on top of this blog is the Fred and Ginger Building in Prague. It is also known as the Dancing House. It does, at first glance, resemble Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers dancing.

The building is an example of deconstructivist architecture, with an unusual shape. But if you take some time and look closer the building looks like a structure that is falling down. The original building on the Ginger side was destroyed by a bomb during World War II. The Fred side of the building which is the neighboring house (with a small globe on the roof) was co-owned by Czech ex-president Vaclav Havel, who lived there from his childhood untilthe mid-1990s. You can almost see the bomb explosion as you watch the neighboring side collapsing. I first saw the building in a guide book when I was planning the trip to Prague. I did not read much about it's history or it's symbolism. But I was fascinated with the design of the building and could not wait to take photos of it.

As I continued walking along the water front past The Dancing House I saw this church with two very unusual steeples. I was very much fascinated with the unusual steeple with the two spires. It was unlike any other church I had seen in Prague. Prague has many beautiful churches and is known for it's skyline of spires. But this church just quietly sat in the background with no explanation. I took several photos of the church and unfortunately I did not take the time to find the name of the church. As I mentioned I was still a somewhat novice traveler. Unlike when I travel today with my digital camera and take hundreds of photos including street names and descriptive plaques on building, I was using film and had limited exposures. I took a bus out of Prague the following day to see an old castle in a neighboring town. I asked the guide on the bus about this church when we drove past it. He told me that a church sat in that location before World War II. It was destroyed by a bomb. He said when the church was rebuilt the steeples were designed to represent the point the bomb falling down to destroy the original building. When I walked back past the church the next day I could see the symbolism very clearly.




I learned a lot from my visit to Prague. I learned to look down for the small memorials on the ground that might be missed. I learned to look for meanings and memorials hidden in unusual architecture and church steeples. It really changed the way I travel and how I look at things in foreign locations. There is so much to see, so much to learn, and so much that can be easily missed if you don't take the time to ask questions and do some research.