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'Prague is a city with a enormous cultural life and architecture from periods spanning ten centuries'
The capital of the Czech Republic is situated in the Vltava valley and is a city rich in cultural heritage and a long history. Remember to get cheap flights to Prague for your trip. Prague is a city which blends the old with the new, and this is evident when walking down the cobble stone streets of the city centre. You can check the availability of cheap flights to Prague via our flight links. You will see the mixture of Gothic churches and old traditional town houses, which stand side by side with the more modern and sleek glass buildings. We provide information from many budget Prague Flights. Attractions in Prague include the variety of museums, galleries and theatres, which are becoming increasingly more popular here. You can also find cheap flights from Prague to Europe and worldwide destinations. The city centre is full of little charming bistro's and trendy boutiques for those who are interested in shopping for the day. Restaurants in Prague are becoming more varied and international and are no longer confined to the traditional cuisine. Hotels in Prague range from the costly upscale to the more reasonably priced. Prague has a generally mild climate, so the best time to visit is the spring and summer, as the winter can get very cold. Prague may aspire to be seen as just another European capital, complete with Prada shops and the salaries needed to shop in them, but there really is no escaping Prague's fringe status. That, after all, is what has attracted idiosyncratic oddballs ever since the Velvet Revolution of '89. Well, that and the low rent and the cheap, exquisite Czech beer.
Prague may want to be just another Brussels, complete with Prada shops and the commensurate salaries with which to shop there but there's no escaping its fringe status. That's what has attracted America's most idiosyncratic oddballs ever since the Velvet Revolution of '89. That and the low rent and dirt-cheap, exquisite beer.
Though it's a city changing at break-neck pace, with mega-malls, ‘style' bars and car dealerships opening as fast as they can build them, it's still a place that steadfastly refuses to fit into tidy Western Europe. There's still communist-style bureaucracy, shoddy service and crumbling infrastructure. And it's still possible to give up your responsible day job, move to Praha and become a satirist.
They don't call it the capital of Bohemia (and the Czech Republic) for nothing, it would seem. Even native Praguers, though they may hold down two demanding jobs to pay for a tiny apartment, are unlikely ever to refuse an invitation for a beer or 12. And parties at the new warehouse-sized club Matrix reel 'em in five nights a week. A mere 14 years as a free market democracy and EU membership as of April 2004 can't be expected to make any Bohemian into a well-behaved, efficient drone.
Which is not to say Prague lacks propriety altogether. Its dozens of museums, art collections, palaces and Prague Castle itself are the height of formal culture. And the Czech Philharmonic or State Opera is as cheap, proportionally, as the beer. Ornate walled gardens, such as the Valdstejska zahrada, make for refined spring strolls while rowboats on the Vltava River look straight out of a Renoir painting.
And its architecture, Europe's most complete open-air museum of every period from Romanesque to postmodern, is justly world-famous.
Soaring high above the city, Prague Castle's silhouette draws you up and makes a good starting point to begin your tour. The Castle (Pražský hrad, Hradc(anské námêstí) has many components: a palace, a vertiginous cathedral, two museums, a Romanesque monastery and several impressive galleries and concert halls make up the pile. From this historic seat of the nation, mad Emperor Rudolph II (1583-1612) gathered artists and alchemists in the late Renaissance.
The main entrance is guarded by two massive statues of duelling titans, as well as two handsome soldiers standing in candy-striped shacks. Ramble through two courtyards and you reach the Gothic spires of St Vitus's Cathedral, Prague's signature postcard feature. Built on St Wenceslas's grave, it was completed in 1929, exactly a millennium after his burial.
At the eastern end of the third courtyard is the crumbling red-and-cream brick facade of St George's Basilica (Bazilika sv Jir(í). If you go down Jir(ská from here, signposts direct you to one of Prague's most quaint but over-touristy streets, the Golden Lane (Zlatá ulic(ka). It's lined with multicoloured cottages clinging to the castle's north walls like an elf village. These Lilliputian buildings were thrown up by the poor Castle retainers and soldiers in the 16th century, and Franz Kafka stayed at No.22 for a while. The lane empties out in front of the Black Tower (C(erná vêž) and ends at the impossibly picturesque Old Castle Steps (Staré zámecké schody), which lead down an enormous staircase to the district of Malá Strana, the western half of the old city's heart.
The winding streets and colonnades of Malá Strana (‘Little Quarter') apron Prague Castle and provide its Vltava River frontage, a regular backdrop for visiting film crews. These lanes have kept their integrity with authentic crumbled facades and darkened corners, where little pubs serve mulled wine on chilly nights.
At the heart of the quarter is Malostranské námêstí, a lively square edged by baroque palaces and Renaissance townhouses that hide Gothic interiors and cellars making for improbably rustic crafts shops, jazz bars and tea rooms. In the middle is the monumental late baroque Church of St Nicholas (Chrám sv Mikuláše), with its huge dome and belltower, a masterpiece of Killian Ignaz Dientzenhoffer and son. From here, you can stroll down Mostecká to Charles Bridge (Karlu*v most), one of the most enduring images of the city. Built in 1357 to unite Prague's two halves, it got its baroque makeover in the 17th century with the addition of two lines of saints' statues.
Prague's most haunting quarter, Staré Mêsto, or Old Town, is best approached from Charles Bridge. That puts you squarely on the Královská Cesta or Royal Route – once the coronation path followed by Bohemian kings between the city gates and Prague Castle. It also plants you on the main tourist highway. So mind the enterprising pickpockets.
At its heart is the touristic Old Town Square (Staromêstské námêstí), whose yellow, cream and mint-green buildings give it a wedding-cake look. Though crowded with peddlers and talentless buskers, the square's wondrous Astronomical Clock (Orloj) makes any visit worthwhile. Since 1490 people have gathered on the hour to watch its wooden doors swing open and the saints emerge to roll above lurid figures illustrating greed, vanity, death and ‘the Turk'.
Looming grimly over the square are the eerily blackened towers of the Church of Our Lady Before Týn (Staromêstské námêstí 14, +420222322801). Built in the late 14th century, the church, which haunted Kafka, is now dramatically lit by night.
From the square, head up Celetná to the Powder Gate (Prašná brána), a 15th-century relic of the former fortifications that ringed the city.
The streets north-west of the Old Town Square are strangely vacant of residents. This is Prague's Josefov neighbourhood, once the city's teeming Jewish ghetto. Walking down Par(ížská, which bisects the area, the first sign that you're in the quarter is the stubby brick peaks and gables on top of the Old-New Synagogue (Staronová synagóga). Begun in the 13th century, this was the spiritual heart of Prague's Jewish community for some 700 years.
The densely packed area evoked by Kafka was cleared out in the early 20th century to make way for Parisian boulevards. The Nazis then depopulated it and only now is Josefov regaining some of its lost life. Just south of the Old-New Synagogue is the former Jewish Town Hall, best known for its belfry with a clock on each of its four sides, including a Hebrew version, whose hands tick counter-clockwise.
The haunting Old Jewish Cemetery (Starý židovský hr(bitov) was created in the 15th century and used until 1787. It's estimated to contain the remains of some 100,000 people as many as 12 layers deep, with headstones that lean against one other and cascade in all directions.
On the far side of the cemetery is Pinkas Synagogue (Pinkasova synagóga), where the interior walls are covered with the names of 80,000 Holocaust victims from Bohemia and Moravia. The synagogue also has a heartbreaking display of drawings by children held in the Terezín concentration camp.
Made famous by the massive protests that brought down the Soviet-backed socialist government, Wenceslas Square (Václavské námêstí) these days is known mainly for traffic, chain stores, sausage stands, prostitutes and drug dealers. The grand but fairly dullish National Museum (Národní muzeum, +420224497111), which crowns the top of the square, is at least fronted by Josef Václav Myslbek's equestrian statue of St Wenceslas, created in 1912. A Soviet-era dual carriageway divides the museum from Wenceslas Square. Beyond stands the main train station, very seedy after dark. |
