Pavel showed a superpower. Joined the mountaineering cleaning of the cathedral

Large cleaning can take different forms. Wash windows, wipe out the window sills, vacuum the library, knock carpets, maybe there will be a mess for the radiators … But when the St. Vitus Cathedral is cleaned at Prague Castle, multiply everything at least.

Instead of four or six windows, there are thirty -eight in the cathedral. Great. In total, they have half of the football field. Instead of a stepladder, a rag and a bucket with a detergent, a ladder and scaffolding, or a straight rope, carabiners and a bunch of experienced climbers, come to the word. And while at home a big cleaning can be able to clean up in the afternoon, another for the weekend, in the cathedral will be cleaned for four months.

This year, the Prague Castle Administration embarked on the greatest cleaning of the cathedral in decades. “This is an extraordinary event that is unprecedented in the last forty years,” explains Petr Chotěbor from the Department of Monument Care of the Office of the President of the Republic. Something similar in the cathedral took place in the mid -1980s. Electrical wiring changed and scaffolding was built in the cathedral, which was used to clean.

But beware, wind windows do not wash, but vacuum. On Thursday, for example, came the largest artistically portrayed window in the Czech Republic with the motif of the last court. It is located on the south side of the cathedral, between the large tower and the chapel of St. Wenceslas, where the coronation jewels are kept. It was made before the war by the Prague workshop of the art glassmaker Josef Jiřička according to the design of the painter Max Švabinský and is situated on an area of ​​160 square meters.

Was also cleaned by the president

Mountaineers are approximately pounds of dust from each window. President Petr Pavel also tried their work on Thursday morning. “As it goes to climbers, I came to see their perspective. Thanks for the unusual morning warm -up! ”He said on his account on the X network.

In addition to windows, stone elements are also cleaned. With the help of brushes, climbers remove dust in places where cleaning would not normally get. The three windows in the back of the cathedral had to be built scaffolding, where stained glass was restored. Due to their weight and climatic influences, the colored windows are deformed in places, so it is necessary to replace their lead warp for several parts.

To the others, climbers trigger on ropes suspended from the roof of the cathedral. They hang tens of meters above the heads of visitors, with them hanging on ropes and vacuum cleaner. And people are the reason why the cleaning is going right now that fewer tourists come to the temple and some of the necessary occupation of the place under hanging climbers on the ropes do not mind.

“Extremely strong visitor operation, together with the natural airflow of air, contributes to the fact that layers of dust and other impurities are settling inside the cathedral,” explains Pavel Vyhnánek, director of Prague Castle Administration. Common cleaning can only remove a smaller part of dirt.

During greater cleaning, restorers can also clean stone elements or check if there has been a piece of glass somewhere. A hole in the window can also mean that a bird is flying into the cathedral. The castle had to deploy a falconer with a hawk to the expulsion of a pigeon who managed to fly into the cathedral. At other times, the kestrel flew into the cathedral, but the administrators managed to catch the exhausted the next day.

Cleaning from top to bottom

When it is done above, cleaning and restorers will move to Triforium – an inner gallery in the cathedral. There they will check joints, stone details. « There have been a few relaxed joints that will be needed to be repaired, » says the cathedral manager Radek Pechač.

Eventually everyone will move down and be cleaned in the chapels around the perimeter of the cathedral. “Last time they were cleaned behind Covid. Windows, altars, sculptures, paintings, ”says Pechač. It is also checked whether a statue is not moldy or whether it has not tasted woodworm. It will be cleaned by the end of May.