Filmmakers "used" Prague's St. Nicholas holy ground for "Vampire carnival"

Rating: 10/10 (12 June 2004)

Dear God, I still can't believe this can be true(!)
I've recognized it at the first moment, the "Vampire carnival" scene is filmed entirely in the interior of the ancient and one of the holiest grounds in the old Europe, in the great St. Nicholas cathedral of Prague of Bohemia. They even removed the ancient benches. I feel really disgusted and say angry of what those ignorant cinematographers did.
This is and it was one of the most admired and one of the holiest grounds in the old "Holy Roman Empire" and the "Kingdom of Bohemia". This was the Church of choice (besides St.Peter's) for Emperors and Kings in the middle ages when the Prague was capital city of the Roman empire from the Baltic to Adriatic sea. This is master-piece-church of the Gothic/late baroque, made by the most skilful artists of Italy, Germany and Bohemia for God sake!
Church people said that they have no idea of what filmmakers will do in the inside. They "rented" the cathedral for some big money so the church people were happy for the "donation". My brother said that he saw a spot about it in our local television. I am surprised that the city is not suing producers for this.
So what now mr. Sommers ? Will you go to Vatican and use the Sixteen Chapel as your next playground ? Because the old town cathedral at the very heart of Europe is ready for a new dedication after this.
Another clear example of ignorance of American filmmakers is the scene where the ancient emperor's Charles IV bridge of Prague and the (obvious) city landscape of Prague is shown and "the vampiress" named the city Budapest (!). So the filmmakers now trade Prague for Budapest ? It's like show landscape of New York and say Moscow. Bohemia's Prague has nothing in common with Magiar's Budapest for God sake! It would be better if they use no names at all.
The CGI made castle scenes looked fabulous so why they decided to use those well known Prague sightseeing and renamed them.. ? It is odd, it's unoriginal and it feels horrible (at least for mid European).
I admire Sommers for his previous flicks, but he will be send to hell for what he did in Van Helsing.
:-)