Day 8 - Strahov Monastery

This is a definite 'must see' for book and history lovers! And a private tour is the only way to do it. Why? Because you get to walk inside the rooms versus looking in from a doorway. And, more importantly to learn the most intriguing stories and facts you'd never find on the Internet.

Our guide George was very knowledgeable and pleased to share his expertise during the 45 minute tour. We suspect he was a retired professor.

Some of the following info was pulled from brochures he gave us.

The Strahov Library has approximately 280,000 titles - 3,000 are manuscripts. The oldest manuscript is the Strahov Gospel dated in 860. It is not on public view due to the need for a climate-controlled environment.

In front of the Philosophical Hall were 'Cabinets of Curiosities'. I learned that there is no skeleton of a dodo bird (despite hearsay on the Internet). There were, however, some pretty ugly and downright weird things in those old cabinets. Would have liked more time to examine the displays but that was not possible.

The Philosophical Hall was built to accommodate the size and height of the book shelves. I loved the ornate ceiling. One of the beautiful globes in the middle of the hall depicted countries as envisioned at the time. Canada was missing, except for the east coast.

The next impressive room we toured was the Theological Hall. George pointed out that the ornate mural on the ceiling was painted in six months by F. Anton Maulbertsch of Vienna with only one helper. There is a 4 volume work about the Louvre Museum, sent by the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. (More to that story.) And, there's a secret door to access the upper levels! Check out the last picture. The rows of books closest to the door are angled to accommodate the hidden circular staircase. Cool!

Apparently, the librarian and archivist Prior Cyril Stratka, named the two halls. He was a Czech bookbinding expert who influenced making the library accessible to the public.

Thank you, Cyril!Read more