Wed 05.May.2010
Czesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
Czech Republic - what a
mouthful of a name for a nice country!
Would that we could do as the Germans do, and call it Czechia, but that is not really
accepted in English. Try it, and you are likely to be mistaken for
Chechnya. So Czech Republic it is.
The lower wing of the castle with its
round tower is irresistable to gawk at.
Most of that exterior detail is painted on or s'grafitto'd, of which more below.
A relatively modern date on a building in the old town.
Whoa... grand straight lines and
pathways and such like some French chateau. We must be in ...
The Castle Garden
Got it, kids?
When you go to the castle garden, lay off the shrooms!
S'ok. The place is pretty unreal anyway.
I found this van parked outside my building the other morning. So help
me, the logo reads "The Nature-Conscious-Existence-Basket
/ A worthful, thoughtful gift idea." The illustration showed a
gift-basket with a wine bottle and flowers.
In fairness to the Czechs, that van is in German, not Czech. In
fairness to the Germans, it is parked in Bohemia, not Germany.
S'graffito
There is a lot of fool-the-eye decoration on the buildings here. Some of it really is just painted shadows and features.
A lot of what looks like painted-on features turns out to be s'graffito, a technique popular also in parts of the Swiss alps.
In s'graffito, the outermost layer of paint, plaster or whatever is
removed selectively to expose the (usually) darker layer of material
beneath. A common and easy use of the technique is to make bricks
"protrude". More intricate decor is also possible.
<--- Gotcha!
This one really is painted-on.
Most of the decoration on the round tower back at the biginning of this post is s'graffito.
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf