Prague Jewish Quarter - part II

High Synagogue (Vysoká synagoga)
Attached to the Jewish town hall and housing the Jewish museums collection of silver, Torah pointers and ceremonial crowns is the High Synagogue so named for its' location on the second floor. The lower chamber houses a kosher restaurant. Mordecai Maisel founded the synagogue. The current building is a reconstruction and dates from 1892.

Maisel Synagogue (Maiselova synagoga)
The Maisel Synagogue was built in 1590 - 1592 by the Mayor of the Jewish Town, Mordechai Maisel, who funded the extensive Renaissance reconstruction of the ghetto. The builders of this synagogue were Josef Wahl and Juda Goldsmied de Herz. The original building was seriously damaged by fire in 1689 and was then renovated in the Baroque style. In the end, it was considerably rebuilt to a pseudo-Gothic design by Prof. A Grott in 1893-1905. All that remained intact of the original Renaissance layout was the groundplan of the tripartite central hall with the upper-storey women´s section. The Maisel Synagogue is currently used by the Jewish Museum as an exhibition venue and depository.

Ceremonial Hall
The building housing the fomer Ceremonial Hall and mortuary of the Old Jewish Cemetery was built in a pseudo-Romanesque style in 1911-12 to a design by architect J. Gerstl. As part of the Jewish Museum, the Ceremonial Hall of the Prague Burial Society Hevrah Kaddishah (founded in 1564) later became an exhibition venue.

Church of the Holy Ghost (Kostel sv. Ducha)
It was built in the mid-14th century as a part of a convent of Benedictine nuns. The church was destroyed in 1420 during the Husite Wars and badly damaged by the fire of 1689. The furnishings are mainly Baroque. Inside the church there is a statue of St Ann and busts of St Wenceslas and St Adalbert, in front of the church stands a stone statue of St John Nepomuk.

Spanish Synagogue (Španělská synagoga)
The Spanish Synagogue was built in 1868 on the site of the oldest Prague Jewish house of prayer ("the Old Shul"). It was designed in a Moorish style by Vojtech Ignatz Ullmann. The synagogue has a regular square plan with a large dome surmounting the central space. On three sides there are galleries on metal structures, which fully open onto the nave. The remarkable interior decoration features a low stucco arabesque of stylized Islamic motifs which are also applied to the walls, doors and gallery balustrades. The interior, together with the stained glass windows, were designed by architects A. Baum and B. Munzberg and completed in 1893. Frantisek Skroup, the composer of the Czech national anthem, served as organist here in 1836-45. By reopening the Spanish Synagogue - closed for over 20 years - on the 130th anniversary of its establishment, the Jewish Museum in Prague has completed one of its most ambitious projects to date.

St Agnes's Convent (Klášter sv. Anežky)
The convent was founded in 1234 by Agnes, a sister of King Wenceslas I. In the1230s it was a double monastery of the female Poor Clares and the male Minorites. There are two churches in the convent: the St Salvator Church where the tomb of St Agnes has been found, and the St Francis Church with the tomb of the King Wenceslas I, Today, the convent is used by the National Gallery to display a collection of European medieval art.The Rudolfinum
Built between 1876 and 1884 the Rudolfinum is an outstanding example of Czech Neo-Renaissance style. It was named in honour of Crown Prince Rudolf of Habsburg. Between the wars it served as the seat of the Czechoslovak parliament, today it is a home of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rudolfinum Gallery where temporary art exhibitions are held.