Prague (Praha — the "Mother of Cities" according to Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who transformed it into the largest city in Europe in the 14th century) is the best-preserved medieval city in Europe: the only major city that escaped both the Baroque rebuilding of the 17th–18th centuries AND the bombing of the Second World War (it was liberated by the Red Army in May 1945 with its cathedral, castle, Jewish Quarter and Charles Bridge intact). The result is a layered city where Gothic, Baroque, Art Nouveau, Cubist (Prague has the finest Cubist architecture in the world) and Communist-era architecture coexist without contradiction, and where the Vltava River curls beneath the castle hill and medieval bridges as it has for 1,000 years. Prague is also one of the cheapest capitals in Central Europe, has the finest beer tradition in the world (Pilsner Urquell was invented in Bohemia in 1842), and the most beautiful main square in Europe — the Old Town Square with its 600-year-old Astronomical Clock.
The Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí — the medieval market square that has been Prague's heart for 900 years) is at its most magical at dawn: the Gothic Týn Church (twin towers, 80m, begun 1365) and the Baroque Church of St. Nicholas reflected in the wet cobblestones, the Astronomical Clock (Orloj — 1410, one of the oldest still-functioning astronomical clocks in the world, showing sidereal time, solar time, the positions of the sun and moon, the zodiac, and performing a mechanical "Walk of the Apostles" every hour) with almost no people. Walk down to Charles Bridge (Karlův Most, 1357, 16 Baroque statues added 1700–14) in the dawn mist.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideJosefov (the Jewish Quarter of Prague — the name from Emperor Josef II who abolished the ghetto laws in 1782) contains 6 synagogues (the Old New Synagogue, 1270, the oldest surviving synagogue in Europe, still functioning — its gabled attic contains the remnants of the Golem of Prague) and the Old Jewish Cemetery (Starý židovský hřbitov — 12,000 surviving gravestones from the 15th–18th century, some 12 layers deep as burials were stacked when the ghetto ran out of space). Franz Kafka was born one block from the cemetery in 1883.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSvíčková na smetaně (braised beef sirloin in a cream sauce made from root vegetables, served with bread dumplings (houskový knedlík), cranberry sauce and a dollop of whipped cream — the most beloved dish in Czech cuisine, the equivalent of Sunday roast in England) at a traditional hospoda (Czech pub — the social institution of Czech life, darker and more stubbornly authentic than a German Kneipe). With a 0.5l Kozel dark or Budvar Czech lager.
Prague Castle (Pražský hrad — the most visited castle complex in the world, 70,000 m², inhabited since the 9th century — largest ancient castle in the world by area, housing St. Vitus Cathedral (the finest Gothic cathedral in Central Europe, begun 1344 by King John of Bohemia, completed 1929 — Alfons Mucha's Art Nouveau windows, the St. Wenceslas Chapel with 1,300 semi-precious stones) and the Old Royal Palace (the Vladislav Hall, 1503, where tournaments on horseback were held indoors)) is best seen at golden hour when the light on St. Vitus is extraordinary.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideU Fleků (Kremencova 11, Nové Město — brewing its dark lager continuously since 1499, making it one of the oldest active breweries in the world, serving only its own tmavé pivo (dark lager, 13°, the original Czech dark beer) in the large brewery garden and hall) is the most authentic Czech pub experience in Prague. Accordion music, long wooden tables, Czech families and tourists drinking the same dark beer that has been poured here for 525 years.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCharles Bridge (Karlův Most — 516m long, 10m wide, 16 arches over the Vltava, built 1357 on King Charles IV's orders. The 30 Baroque statues (added 1700–1714 as replacements for the medieval originals — most notable: the Pieta by Matthias Braun and the St. John of Nepomuk, the first Baroque statue, 1683, which started the fashion for bridge statues throughout Catholic Europe) are best appreciated without the midday crowds. The view from the bridge of Prague Castle, the Vltava and Malá Strana is the defining image of the city.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMalá Strana (the "Lesser Town" — the Baroque quarter of Prague on the left bank of the Vltava, below Prague Castle — Wallenstein Palace (1623, the largest Baroque palace in Bohemia, the peacock garden, free admission), St. Nicholas Church (the most important Baroque building in Prague), the Kampa Island (separated from Malá Strana by the Čertovka millstream) and the John Lennon Wall (a wall near the French Embassy that began as a memorial to John Lennon after his assassination in 1980 and has been repainted with Beatles lyrics and peace messages ever since).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePetřín Hill (the 318m hill above Malá Strana — accessible by the Petřín funicular from Újezd, CZK 24 each way on a normal transit ticket) has the Petřín Lookout Tower (the 60m iron tower built in 1891 as a tribute to the Eiffel Tower for the Prague Jubilee Exhibition — 299 steps to the top, view over all of Prague and on clear days the Alps), the mirror maze, the Štefánik Observatory and the most beautiful orchard in Prague (apple and cherry blossoms in spring).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideObecní dům (the Municipal House, 1912 — built on the site of the former Royal Court, the finest Art Nouveau building in Central Europe and the most important building in Prague after St. Vitus Cathedral: Alfons Mucha painted the Mayor's Salon himself, including the ceiling; the Smetana Hall (the main concert hall) is one of the finest Art Nouveau interiors in the world; the Kavárna (café) downstairs is the best café interior in Prague). Tours available, or attend a concert in the Smetana Hall.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCzech goulash (guláš — the thick beef and paprika stew with bread dumplings, less sweet than Hungarian, more complex — at a proper hospoda, not a tourist restaurant) and a Becherovka (the Karlovy Vary herbal liqueur, 38% alcohol, the Czech national spirit — allegedly "the thirteenth spring of Karlovy Vary," drunk neat as a digestif or mixed with tonic as a "Beton" (concrete)). Lokál (Dlouhá 33 — the finest traditional Czech pub in Prague, Pilsner Urquell tank beer).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideVyšehrad (the "High Castle" — the rocky promontory above the Vltava 2km south of the Old Town, the mythical founding point of Prague from the 8th century, though the current structures date from the 14th–17th centuries: the romanesque Rotunda of St. Martin (the oldest surviving building in Prague, 11th century), the Gothic Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the Slavín National Cemetery where Czech national figures are buried: Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, Alfons Mucha, Jan Neruda) gives the most dramatic views of the Vltava River and Prague Castle.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Museum of Communism (Na příkopě 10, ironically above a McDonald's and beside a casino) is the most effective political museum in Central Europe: the reconstruction of a Communist-era classroom, a factory and an interrogation room (using actual StB (Secret Police) interrogation furniture and equipment), combined with personal testimonies from people who lived through the Prague Spring (1968) and the Velvet Revolution (1989). Not just history — an essential inoculation against nostalgia.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Pilsner Urquell brand operates a permanent tasting room and cellar experience in Prague (Na příkopě area or the Lokál chain of pubs serve unfiltered tank Pilsner Urquell — the closest you can get to the Plzeň original without going to Plzeň, 90km west). The unfiltered version (nepasterizovaný ležák) poured from the tank has a completely different character from the bottled version — creamier, fresher, with a full yeast character. One of the definitive beer experiences in the world.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideWenceslas Square (Václavské náměstí — 750m long, the main boulevard of Nové Město, now a commercial street but the location of every major event in Czech modern history: the declaration of Czechoslovak independence in 1918, the Nazi occupation in 1939, the Prague Spring protests of 1968, Jan Palach's self-immolation in protest of the Soviet invasion in 1969, and the 250,000-person crowds of the Velvet Revolution in November 1989) is best understood with this history in mind.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePečená kachna (roasted duck with red cabbage and two types of dumplings — the bread dumpling (houskový) and the potato dumpling (bramborový), with the pan drippings poured over the whole) at a traditional Czech restaurant: Café Savoy (Malá Strana, in the most beautiful neo-Renaissance ceiling in Prague), Mincovna (Old Town Square) or U Modré Kachničky (the Blue Duckling, Malá Strana — the finest Czech restaurant in Prague with a wine cellar carved from medieval rock).
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