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| Plenary Session Hall (Jednací sál) in Valdštejnský palác. |
Yesterday Czechs, and many others, celebrated the seventieth anniversary
of the end of the Second World War. Flags appeared everywhere, sticking out of
cars’ windows, stuck on the front of trams, which is reminiscent of a college
football gameday in the U.S., and which, come to think of it, may in fact
more accurately reflect the flags’ purpose since the World Hockey Championship
is happening in Prague.
Some buildings, normally closed to the public, were opened in honor of
the holiday. One such building was Valdštejn
palace, where the Senate meets and works. I wish that visiting the palace
in this way could have been part of my class’s global
experience, because I would have liked to hear their thoughts on what kind
of impact the history of the location might have on the workings of modern
politics. For example, do senators look up at the Main Hall’s ceiling mural of
Valdštejn as Mars, in true seventeenth-century metaphor, and think they are
countering or fulfilling that vision? Or does the fact that the Plenary Session
Hall (Jednací sál) was
originally a horse stable allow for more humble thoughts of their work?
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| Main Hall ceiling mural of Valdštejnský palác |
