Day 3 & 4- Castles and Camps

Sorry, about not blogging yesterday. I was tired after my trip to Karlštejn Castle. Karlštejn Castle is located about 40 km from Prague up in the forest. Built in the mid 14th century by King Charles IV, this is nothing but impressive. King Charles IV built it to protect the crown jewels instead of being used to protect a city or area. The castle has three parts; the Imperial Palace, the Deanery, and the Marian Tower. The Imperial Palace is where the knights resided and possibly the queen. The Deanery had King Charles' bedroom, the audience hall, and the hall of royal ancestors. Unfortunately, I couldn't go into the Marian Tower which housed the royal treasury as well as The Chapel of the Holy Cross. Only 16 people can go in at a time and there's all these rules about going in to see it. It sounded awesome though. So instead I just got awesome photos of the view. OH random but brilliant fact; a wooden bridge was built from the Deanery to the Marian Tower so if attackers tried to capture the jewels the bridge could be burned, and no one would have access to it. Also, the castle was never completely conquered. The Swedes came the closest by capturing 2/3 of the castle before retreating.

 

 

Today, Kaja took me to Terezín. Terezín started off as a fortress in the 18th century built as a prison for offenders during the national liberation struggle, before becoming a concentration camp during World War II. The guide explained it more like a transit camp, where people would stay temporarily before being moved onto a different camp. There were no gas chambers here but still, thousands of people died here by disease or execution. The town was hastily built and used by the German Nazis to film propaganda videos. All those museums in America cannot come close to capturing the emotions that go through you when you're actually at a camp. And the irony of it all was that the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the sky was blue. Yet, only 75ish years ago, people were being work to their deaths in the exact same weather.