THE MANY PLEASURES OF
PRAGUE
by Stuart Haggas
The fairytale city of Prague is frequently
called upon to flex its historic muscles alongside Hollywood’s
hottest stars. Resembling a Gothic fantasy as described
by the pen of the Brothers Grimm, it proved an atmospheric
co-star to Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, and Vin
Diesel in xXx, but there’s more to Prague than ass-kicking
architecture. The city has a broader appeal, and has displayed
its adaptability in countless other films. In The Bourne
Identity it acted as Zürich alongside a sexy Matt
Damon. In gory low-budget shocker Hostel it doubled as
Amsterdam’s Red Light district. In The Illusionist,
Prague’s narrow cobbled streets and gas lamps made
it the perfect stand-in for 1900s Vienna, its Vinohrady
Theatre a grand belle époque backdrop for the
magic of Edward Norton and Jessica Biel. With the aid
of some strategically placed palm trees, it was cunningly
cast as Miami in Casino Royale—the Miami Body Worlds
exhibition was actually Prague’s Ministry of Transport,
with scenes of James Bond pursuing a saboteur around Miami
International Airport in fact filmed at Prague’s
Ruzyni Airport.
As a tourist destination, Prague is
equally versatile in its appeal. Dominated by breathtaking
medieval and Baroque architecture, the beguiling streets
of Staré Mesto (Old Town) attract hordes
of tourists, including tightly regimented Japanese tour
parties, chattering school groups from Spain and Italy,
and backpackers from every corner of the globe.
Thanks to budget airlines inexpensively
connecting Prague to other European cities, it’s
become popular with rowdy bachelor and bachelorette
parties wearing ubiquitous “Drinking Team”
t-shirts. Thus the once gracious Art Nouveau Wenceslas
Square in the heart of Nové Mesto (New
Town) today resembles a pre-Giuliani Times Square, with
pavement hawkers touting late night drinking dens, pole
dancing clubs, and other carnal indulgences.
Although Hollywood blockbusters have
brought Prague to the world via a million multiplexes,
films of a different genre have contributed to Prague’s
endearing popularity as a gay destination. Renowned
for 80s classics like Big Guns and The Pizza Boy: He
Delivers, American gay porn director William Higgins
has been synonymous with Prague’s gay scene since
abandoning West Hollywood in 1988 and opening raunchy
sex multiplex Drakes of Prague. After a ten-year
hiatus he resumed his adult filmmaking career here,
with young Czech athletes and military recruits as his
frisky, fresh-faced performers. Perhaps more synonymous
with Prague, however, is George Duroy’s film studio
Bel Ami. Its output includes An American In Prague,
one of the best-selling gay porn films of all time.
However, Bel Ami is actually based in Bratislava in
neighboring Slovakia, and its most notable stars like
Johan Paulik and Lukas Ridgeston are also native Slovakians.
Still, the impact made by the films
of both George Duroy and William Higgins demonstrated
there was an appetite for pornstars who didn’t
fit the beefy, all-American bodybuilder mold, and these
young, smooth guys from central Europe helped cement
Prague’s place on the gay map.
Although I can’t guarantee you
a liaison with your favorite Czech pornstar, the mere
chance of such an encounter is just another cherry on
Prague’s already delicious cake. While chatting
with gay bar owner Paul Coggles over lunch at popular
Italian restaurant Aromi, he revealed that a
porn company was keen to use his bar as a location.
Originally from the United Kingdom, Paul came to Prague
in 1997, and recognizing what a tolerant and beautiful
place it was, he opened The Saints in 2005. Popular
with tourists and Prague’s ex-pat community, this
intimate basement bar is part of a portfolio that includes
a selection of holiday apartments and Prague Saints,
an online gay travel agency. “It can be daunting
for a gay visitor to a new city, and I wanted to make
it easier,” Paul explained. “I saw a need
for a one stop shop that someone could visit and have
all his travel needs provided for: accommodation, tours,
transfers, plus information on the city and its gay
scene. Normally you have to spend a lot of time searching
different websites and the information you really need
is difficult to obtain.”
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Afterwards, I took a walking tour
with Vadim, one of Prague Saints’ enthusiastic, multilingual
gay guides. Although there are many ways to explore Prague,
from horse-drawn carriage rides to city tours in a vintage
Skoda convertible, you’ll see much more by meandering
through the streets on foot.
Regarded as Prague’s focal point,
Old Town Square is dramatically over laden with
charm and character. Casting eerie shadows over the
square from the east is 14th-century Tyn Church.
With a pair of whimsical Gothic towers, it looks like
Sleeping Beauty’s castle after a makeover by Cruella
de Vil! At the square’s westerly perimeter is Old
Town Hall, famous for its Astronomical Clock. Originally
engineered in 1410, there are many urban legends associated
with this incomprehensible timepiece—including
one that claims the clockmaker had his eyes gouged out
by order of Prague’s town councilors to prevent
him from constructing a similar clock elsewhere. Crowds
of tourists gather here to witness “The Walk Of
The Apostles,” a medieval morality play performed
every hour by a cast of clockwork characters. The show
begins when Death, represented by a macabre skeleton,
rings his bell. All twelve apostles appear at noon.
Although repairs and additions have been made to the
clock throughout the centuries, the most dramatic day
in its history came in May 1945, at the end of World
War II. As the Soviet Union’s Red Army approached,
the occupying German forces retreated; but as they did,
incendiary fire set the Town Hall alight. Much of the
building was destroyed, the clock badly damaged. It
took three years to repair its mechanisms and to replace
the calendar face and wooden figures.
Continued
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On
the Road, A Mini Gay Film Fest