Czech Republic

Kresice, one of the last towns on the line before you get to Litomerice, has this little Zamek, or castle (some people would say chateau).

Litomerice's current Hlavni Nadrazi appears to have not always been the main station. This much older-looking station can be seen as you arrive in the yards on the edge of town, and I wonder if it was an older Hlavni.

When I finally arrived in Litomerice Hlavni Nadrazi, I did manage to get a nicer parting shot of my train than usual, as it didn't pull out immediately.

Litomerice's castle, if that's the correct term, is called the Dlouha Brana, or long tower. I don't know very much about the history, as everything I've been able to find is in Czech, and I'm not a very good Czech speaker yet. In any event, this was my first picture of the town.

I'm not aware of how long this old passenger coach has been sitting here, up against the wall of the Dlouha Brana, and not too far from Hlavni Nadrazi. The nightclub who currently appear to be using it, Club Semafor, were celebrating their 40th anniversary, however.

Here's a plaque giving information in Czech about the Dlouha Brana.

Litomerice also has an interesting town hall, or radnice, which looks different from almost every angle you look at it from. It was built over many years, dating back to the 16th Century, but the most recent incarnation dates to 1839, roughly.

Update: After a web search, I finally found some information about this building, from the Litomerice city website: "The House of "U Cerného orla" ("At the Black Eagle") This house is one of the most important Renaissance townhouses. It was built for the Housek family from Adlersberk in 1564 by the Italian builder Balli. In 1650 it became the seat of the Oulík knights from Trebnice and was given the title of Králev Hrádek nad Labem. The plaque over the entrance inscribed with the words SALVA GUARDA (Honor Guard) means that the house wa under the special protection of the ruler and could not be looted. On the front of the house the extensive remains of Renaissance grafitti were discovered in 1957-58, depicting biblical scenes and folk allegories. Today it is the site of a hotel, restaurant and private gallery."

Here's a detail shot of the "grafitti."

The original Litomerice basilica on this site dated to 1057, but the current St. Stephen's Cathedral dates to 1655, when the Litomerice bishopric was founded. The clock tower is newer, being built at the end of the 19th Century to replace the original bell tower.

The Litomerice Radnice was built over many years, dating back to the 16th Century, but the most recent incarnation dates to 1839, roughly. As I've said elsewhere, it has a complex enough design to make it look different from almost any angle.

This shot was more or less an accident. Generally, when I shoot and scan print film, it scans through far too grey, and needs to have the contrast and saturation cranked up in Gimp, but in this case I noticed that the saturation and contrast were high enough so that I overdid it on this first edit, and the photo came out looking like an HDR, which I can't explain. It just is....

All Saints Church is the other big church in Litomerice besides the Cathedral. The Litomerice city website has this to say: "This monumental Baroque construction by Octavio Broggio from 1701-31 was started already by his father Giulio, on top of five residential houses of the Jesuit seminary. The church was consecrated on 16 November, 1731. The original Litomerice hospital - from the 13th century to the end of the Hussite Wars, it belonged to the Order of Crusaders of the Red Star (the order was founded by Agnes of Bohemia, sister of King Vaclav I) and afterwards it was run by the city -was passed to the Jesuits on 3 April, 1629. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, the church served as a storage area for the city brewery in the years 1793-1810. In 1810 the church was again consecrated and from 1811 used as a clerical seminary. In 1818, a hallway joined the church with the former Jesuit seminary on the other side. The interior is decorated with monumental frescoes attributed to Jan Hiebel. The main altar is made of artificial marble and it was finished in 1772 by J. Kramolín, probably based on the design by Octavio Broggio who also made drafts for the six side altars. A Jesuit tomb is placed underneath the church. Today the church is used only occasionally for concerts, for most of the time it remains closed to the public."

This is a pedestrian bridge that connects the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady to other buildings across the street, although I'm not aware of the details as to why.

Just below the pedestrian bridge, as the street merges into steps, are these Corinthian columns, which I'm assuming were dug up somewhere during an archeological dig, and a petrified log, which I assume was found the same way.

Eventually, I decided to walk onto one of the bridges over the River Labe to get a more panoramic view of the city, but another advantage was that I got this series of freight train photos, all of them brutal-looking enough to remind me of the Mohawk Division, even if the mainline through Litomerice is electrified and the Mohawk Division is not.

It was basically just a container train rolling through, one of the first under the new CD Cargo business unit. Note the new CD Cargo logo on #372013-3.

This pan was a little bit blurrier than I prefer, but I decided to include it anyway.