A Strange Garden

On a recent holiday to Prague, I visited The Wallenstein Palace (1624-30), which is now the Czech senate. It is located south of Prague castle, and was built by Albercht von Wallenstein (1581-1634), a powerful and celebrated Catholic general. He fought vigorously to quell Protestant uprisings during the reign of Emperor Ferdinand II. However, as success and power got the better of him, he aspired to become King of Bohemia, and plotted against the emperor. Sounds a little like Macbeth. He was murdered for his disloyalty.

A day before my visit to the palace, I had seen a mysterious patch of grey from the Prague castle and wondered what it was. I unconvincingly dismissed it as an odd-looking garden with grey plants and coniferous trees. Now, as I stood before the massive grey walls in the Wallenstein garden, it all made sense.

The wall was probably viewed as symbol of Wallenstein’s over-ambition, especially after the news that the general was plotting against the king, reached the king’s ears. I can imagine the king looking out of his palace window at the grey patch, which even today sticks out like a sore thumb in the otherwise beautiful urban landscape below, wishing quick riddance of his once-loyal general.

The grey wall is ugly, and under a grey overcast sky, looked even uglier. Its scale and contorted forms, which resemble stalactites, are overwhelming. Notice the live pigeons camouflaged by the grey stone. There are animals and demonic faces lurking in the stones. A snake slithers along one side. There are subtly hidden entrances to possible tunnels or caves hidden within the imaginary womb of the wall.

The wall has the powerful effect of taking one into a world of mystery and the imagination, far removed from the politically and religiously tempestuous times during which it was created. A sort of an baroque Disney land for royal Praguers.

However, I’m sure the current state of the wall is far removed from its orginal one. There were probably a wider variety of plants crawling up its surface. The extreme right of the wall forms the backdrop for an aviary. I saw three or four large owls hopping along long iron bars. A sad sight. Wallenstein probably had a range of exotic caged birds in his time. Besides the wall, nothing else in the garden or the external design and structure of the grand baroque palace suggest that Wallenstein had an interest in the macabre.