The Cobblestones of Prague
During two month-long visits to Prague, I always enjoyed encountering new and various designs in the ubiquitous cobblestone sidewalks of that beautiful city. I found myself enchanted by them on my first visit to the Czech Republic in 2008, and added to my photo collection on the second trip in 2010.
A (not-very-sincere) effort to research the art and history of cobblestone design led almost nowhere, just that using cobblestones was an innovation by ancient Romans to improve road (and sidewalk) construction. Of course, Prague is just one of many cobblestoned cities. What a great improvement cobblestones would have been in the evolution of urban management, compared with the sea of mud and clouds of dust that would have preceded them.
In Prague, the most common stones are charcoal and white, although there are occasional brown stones. Maybe cobblestone art came about as the human search for beauty extended to the most pedestrian place: city sidewalks and streets. I wonder if the people who I’ll call cobblestone artists have “signature” patterns that they like to use. Maybe shopkeepers sometimes request a certain pattern in front of their stores.
The many different cobblestone patterns create a delightful mosaic for the eyes! The geometric designs might be small or large. They are most typically diamonded or squared. Symbols (especially crosses) show up now and then. Sometimes, gifted stone setters create beautiful circular patterns. This has to be very challenging, given the medium of using squared-off stones.
On the Prague sidewalks, cobblestones are usually about two inches cubed, but street stones may be as large as eight inches cubed. The inevitable unevenness of cobblestone leads to various challenges—not the least being to shoe horses so they could pull carriages and carts without wrenching their legs.
Then I realized another very challenging element of cobblestones. During my second tour as a Teaching Assistant for WMU’s Prague Summer Program in 2010, one workshop participant was a wheelchair athlete. A medal-winning paralympian from the Seoul Games in 1988, she also played on the NCAA’s national championship wheelchair team in basketball, wheeled the “Ride The Rockies” event in Colorado numerous times, along with winning her division at the Boston Marathon more than once. No slouch! And yet, managing the streets of Prague and the city’s still-backward system of “accessibility” almost did her in. The bumpy, wheel-grabbing demands of the cobblestones, especially at street crossings, were horrendous to the point where she nearly gave up and went home early. Assisting her led me to realize how something I viewed as enjoyable art was for her a true burden. (As an aside, she taught me that one famous fast food chain requires that their restaurants worldwide be handicap accessible. Go McDonalds!)
Many times, I paused to watch repairmen resetting both large and small cobblestones. It is an art that involves careful undersurface preparation, the proximal layer being fine, packed sand carefully leveled and smoothed. What looks like an ancient street or sidewalk can be repaired to look just as ancient the next day. I’m happy these cities aren’t defaulting to the no-doubt easier and cheaper but much less appealing modern convention of asphalt or concrete. Cobblestones are a distinctly charming and captivating part of Prague.
In order to best enjoy cobblestones, I think, a person should wander on foot and not be in a hurry. Ambling allows full appreciation of them. One word of advice, however: I can report with absolute authority that the situation demands good walking shoes!
[Note: This blog has been updated from when it was first posted in May 2012 at “Design Destinations,” which can be accessed at https://designdestinations.org]
