The Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul

Pictures

Well, after appropriate scolding by my flatmate and others, I am back to my blog. I have a lot of catching up to do, but I thought I'd start with my visit to Petrov Hill this last Saturday. I'll discuss other things I've been doing, including my trip to Prague 2 weekends ago in other posts.

It is finally spring in Brno and the Czechs are all running around happy and skipping around like rabbits on caffeine. I don't mind it either. Saturday was a beautiful day, so, I got up early (ha, I do crack myself up)... so, I got up at noon which is too late for the good lighting for picture taking that I prefer, and headed out to Petrov Hill. On the hill, of course, is the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul with its famous double spires. Upon arriving, I noticed a lot of people around the Cathedral - I thought it was normal tourists, but as it turned out the hollee rollers or the Katolická charismatická konference (Catholic Charismatic Conference) was holding an event. So much for getting good pictures inside (oh, well, I do just live down the street). I wiggled my way inside, pushing my way past the religious crazies, and snapped a few pictures just to prove that I was there. I got back outside and wandered around to the south side of the cathedral where there is an arched side entrance. Immediately inside is a beautiful little chapel.

I am going to start a separate blog for historical locations including cathedrals and I will go back to the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul and do a detailed tour. I'm not finding much detailed information on the cathedral online except for the usual "a must see" recommendations.

So, anyhow, a nun (yes, there are still nuns!) sitting in the back of the little chapel offered me information by pointing up a circular stone stairwell behind her. "Balcony, balcony...", she said. I assumed that she was showing me the way up to the high balcony that Bogdan (my roommate) had described to me. So, I took a picture of the little chapel (I could've sworn I heard the nun make a little noise of disapproval) and headed up the stairs. I paid 13 crowns at a wooden booth and started up the wooden and steel stairs up, up, up to the stone balcony. I discovered that there are actually two balconys - on either side of the roof - one looking south and one looking north. They are joined by a narrow wooden walkway that goes through the inside of the cathedral's high pitched roof. Looking down through the slats, you can see the outside of the top of the arched vaulted ceiling of the cathedral. Pretty freaky. You have a spectacular view of all of Brno from those balconys - although, Saturday was hazy. On my way out, they rang the bell twice for two o'clock. Thank god I wasn't standing right under it when it rang. As it was, I was 15 feet away when they rang the small one. I'd probably have ruptured ear drums if they had rang the big one!

Here is a link to a Czech Forum which has an excellent history of the Cathedral Czech Forum