Holešovice and the western suburbs - The Rough Guide to Prague - page 217

Sv Václav
Náměstí 14 Října • Mon-Fri 7.15am-noon, Sat 7.15-11am, Sun 7.30-11am • 257 317 652 • Metro Anděl
Smíchov's main place of Christian worship is the neo-Renaissance church of sv Václav ,
built in the early 1880s. The style is unusual for the Czech Lands, especially as it was con-
structedatatimewhenJosefMockerwasrunningamokneo-Gothicizingeverythinginsight.
The gloomy interior is a jewel box of Byzantine-style haloed saints, gilded mosaics, huge
Ionic pillars of red Swedish granite and a coffered ceiling. The stained-glass windows in the
nave feature strikingly tall, colourful portrayals of the Apostles and there's a wonderfully
Turkish-looking gilded pulpit with a tent-like canopy.
Království Železnic (Railway Kingdom)
Stroupežnického 23 • Daily 9am-7pm • 200Kč • 257 211 386, Wkralovstvi-zeleznic.cz • Metro Anděl
Since 2009 a group of enthusiasts has been modelling their lives away creating the largest
model railway in Eastern Europe, Království Železnic . This so-called “Railway Kingdom”
is an absolute must for anyone visiting Prague with children; when finished, the 1:87 scale
model will cover more than 1000 square metres, featuring hundreds of miniature reproduc-
tions of junctions, stations, tunnels and well-known sights from across the Czech Republic.
At the time of writing the model was about half finished, the remaining spaces taken up by
exhibitions of model railway systems produced here and in neighbouring countries. There's
lots of railway hardware strewn about the place, kids can let off steam in the playroom and
there's a comprehensive exhibition on the history of Czech Railways (in Czech only).
Musaion
Letohrádek Kinských, Kinského zahrada 98 • Tues-Sun 10am-6pm • 70Kč • Wnm.cz • Tram #6, #9, #12 or
#20 to Švandovo divadlo
In the far north of Smíchov, the Kinský family's Neoclassical summer palace, built in 1827,
sits on the very southern edge of Petřín hill, and now houses the Musaion , the city's beauti-
fully presented ethnographic museum. For anyone interested in folk costumes and traditions,
this is a wonderful destination. The permanent collection, mainly sourced from the Czech
Republic's mountainous regions and Moravia, is spread out over eleven rooms on the piano
nobile , with some of the best costumes in room 4, where the mannequins are decked out in
their Sunday best: huge puffed sleeves, ruffs and bows. Some of the most intriguing exhibits
are in room 7, which displays fearsome masks and rattles from the pre-Lent Masopust fest-
ival, a terrifying Čaramura costume garlanded with eggs and snails, and garlanded pomlázky ,
with which boys lightly whip local girls at Easter. The Christmas section (room 9) is anoth-
er highlight, with its spectacular Betlém (Bethlehem) scene set amid a rocky papier-mâché
townscape. Room 11 is given over to a traditional wedding procession, the bride buried in
ruffs taking her last journey as a single girl in a small horse-drawn carriage. Moravian folk