Let's travel together #330 - Saints Peter and Paul Basilica (Prague, Czechia)

While Romania has been lacking Vitamin D lately with lots of grumpy weather and the sun missing daily, I ended up scrolling through my folders of memories and digging in the one with the places I visited during my stay in Prague, Czechia, last year.

I won't lie, the first word that comes to my head when thinking of that trip is fatigue because it was quite an intense one, with lots of places visited and full days of walking no less than 15km daily, but there are also more memories than this one, such as visiting the country during a fairly hot period of the year which made it such a cool time out there.

Thank God, the sun was not missing in any of my pictures (except for these taken at night), so I'll consider taking my virtual vitamin D from this trip, but also continue the story started in my previous post from Czechia, about Vyšehrad Cemetery (Famous Czechs of the Past) that is right next to this church and it surely worth a visit too.

Locally known as Bazilika sv. Petra a Pavla na Vyšehradě, the basilica was founded in the middle of the 11th century, by the king Vratislaus II of Bohemia who picked a Romanesque architectural style for the building, but which only 160 years later it became part of a large fire that ruined most of the style.
Hence why, the style you will see used for this building in 2024 is rather Gothic and neo-Gothic than Romanesque.
Both the basilica and the cemetery mentioned in the intro of this post, are placed on the territory of a large forest known as Vyšehrad, so keep in mind this name if you are going to walk through this part of Prague because you will see it next to pretty much any point of interest from the area.
Even if this is known as basilica today, the title was earned quite recently (in 2003) after it was ranked up from church to basilica by Pope John Paul II who was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until 2005 when he died.

Needless to say, if you've been to Prague you will easily remember this basilica because it looks so different from anything seen around the town, and the large twin towers are one of the impressive parts of it, making the two easily observed from the top hill of the south from along the Vltava River in central Prague.

Travelling with my friends made us make a group decision about whether we should enter the basilica to see it on the inside too, or if we should only explore it from the outside. And since we had plans to visit some more churches while in Prague, the final decision was to not enter Saints Peter and Paul Basilica which now, looking back, makes me sad for not doing so.

Either way, there are lots of interesting details on the outside of the building, such as the main portal tympanum which is decorated with statues of Jesus standing with his apostles. Just under these details, there is another set of sculptures with the archangel Michael standing between people that are ushered to heaven by angels and some other people crippled by the suffering of sin.

The colourful details you can find on the few paintings from the outside of the building, are just a bit of the colors you can bring into your life if you decide to enter Saints Peter and Paul Basilica.

From what I could see through the slightly open doors, the basilica comes with plenty of art nouveau frescoes painted which are definitely not something you usually see in such religious places, so that's another reason for you not to repeat my mistake and actually enter the building.

^{Click on the images to see them in full resolution}

Still within the Vyšehrad complex, just on the left of the basilica if you are looking towards it you can find the cemetery I wrote about in my previous post, while on the right there is a little arch that takes you to the park with the same name. Both of these two locations are worth a visit.

Anyway, while the cemetery could be visited without needing a visiting ticket, Saints Peter and Paul Basilica require a ticket for this purpose which is around 5 EUR per person. This one can be visited anytime from Monday to Saturday between 10 AM to 5 PM and between 10:30 AM to 5 PM on Sundays.

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The official address of Saints Peter and Paul Basilica is Štulcova, 128 00 Praha 2-Vyšehrad, Czechia and there are more ways to reach it depending on how much you enjoy walking or not.

Obviously, the quickest and easiest method for the more comfortable people is to get a taxi. The 2nd way which mixes both cosiness and a bit of fitness, is by taking a metro where you get off at Vyšehrad station and then make your way first through the old gates and arrive at the rear entry of the cemetery, taking maximum 20 minutes of walking. The 3rd option comes with either a tram or simply walking, because the tram stations won't leave you as close as the metro or taxi does and it will require more walking from you. Some of the options for the tram are 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 16, and 17 where you will get off at the stop called Výton.

Other places I've seen during my stay in Prague:

• The "John Lennon" Wall
• The Nustle Bridge also known as "The Suicide Bridge" of Prague
• Street Art in Prague
• The Dancing House
• Idiom Installation - the book tower of the Prague library
• Vyton Naplavka and Palackého Most
• Grotta, Havlíček Gardens
• Vyšehradské Sady (Vyšehrad Gardens)
• National Library of Technology
• Prague's Astronomical Clock (Pražský Orloj)
• The Narrowest Street of Prague
• The Brick Gate (Cihelná Brána)
• Letná Park (Letenské sady)
• Vyšehrad Cemetery (Famous Czechs of the Past)
• Saints Peter and Paul Basilica

more coming soon...

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game reviews, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 750+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, editing, cooking, and doing various sports activities.}

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[//]:# ([//]:# (!worldmappin 50.06443 lat 14.41789 long One of the oldest and most impressive churches in Prague d3scr))