Prague street art and sculpture

There are bizarre humorous public sculptures in Prague including giant crawling babies and a rotund demon, both made in bronze, and also sobering, serious works such as the pictured ascending steps with disintegrating men which commemorates all the people lost and injured during the oppressive years of enforced communism. Created by Czech sculptor Olbram Zoubek in 2002, this is intentionally a disturbing work to view and think about. The monument is located at the bottom of Petrin Hill, not far from the funicular railway up to the castle. We were lucky to see it in daylight and after dark when its illumination makes the scene even more haunting.

Snakes and owls are frequent sculpture themes on Prague buildings. We guessed they might be the symbols of historic noble families, but I don't know whether this is true! The detailed sculpture pictured below is just along from the communism monument.

The romantic couple in this street art painting are - I think I remember correctly - under the Charles Bridge. The lifesize image is on just around the corner from its artist's studio-shop where smaller prints are available for purchase.

We visited the castle and cathedral the slightly more energetic way by walking up the hill towards them and then getting the funicular railway back down again afterwards. Having previously commented amongst ourselves how quiet other parts of Prague were, the castle site provided an explanation why. It was absolutely heaving with tourists (and litter) here! We only saw the free bits, but this did include the cathedral entrance which its half dozen or so huge stained glass windows. Their colour was even more vibrant than is shown here.

The road leading to the castle is a good place to get a panoramic view across the rooftops of Prague. Someone decided to plonk a Starbucks right where the best view should be from, so this picture was taken leaning over the wall just before that.