A Visit to the Czech Parliament

This afternoon, we made our way to Malostranské náměstí to visit the Czech Parliament.

When everyone had arrived and finished befriending the local pigeons, we crossed the street to the Smiřický Palác. Built in the Baroque style in the 18th century, the palace is one of the buildings used by the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic, which is the lower house of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

Inside, we caught up with our language instructor, Marketa, and Patrick, our tour guide, both of whom work for the Top 09 political party. Top 09 is one of five political parties that forms the current Czech coalition government.

Here, Patrick is explaining the bicameral structure of the Czech parliament, which includes the Senate (upper house) and the Chamber of Deputies (lower house). The Senate consists of 81 members who are elected for six years. The Chamber of Deputies consists of 200 members who are elected for four years.

Then, we walked through several parliamentary buildings to the Chamber of Deputies, which is housed in the beautiful Thun Palace.

Here we found information about several former presidents from the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938) and the current Czech Republic (1992 — ).

And here we are in the beautiful Chamber of Deputies (lower house) in the Thun Palace.

Presenting: momentary members of parliament!

After the Chamber of Deputies, Patrick showed us a few more sites, including the bust of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who served as the first President of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1935. We also saw replicas of important founding documents.

After the tour, we had one final Q&A before heading home.

On the way out, Paul asked to see František Jiroudek’s “Česká krajina” (1962) one last time.