Baroque and brothels
Aesthetically-speaking, 
Prague is very impressive. It’s a veritable wild game reserve of Baroque and neo-Baroque architecture. The various German and Catholic authorities that have ruled here simply went crazy for the style. Even the huge Gothic cathedral in the center of the city’s famed castle has a Baroque steeple, a later (tragic) addition.
Truth be told, I don’t like Baroque. The idea behind it doesn’t sit well with me, because it strikes me as an ideology of exuberant wealth and power, entangled with a celebration of the rationalist modern state (consider the eye in the shining pyramid motif).
I also can’t avoid the feeling of, well, kitsch. Indeed, I think growing up, Baroque was my mental model for kitsch. The fact that crammed in between all the fancy architecture here in Prague are pimps and drug pushers, hunting after young male sex tourists, only reinforces my dislike for the style!
At any rate, click “Read More” to see photos of some sites that, well, scream, “BAROQUE!!”
