Prague

As one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and a central player in the continent’s history since the Middle Ages, Prague is a spectacular place to visit with a vibrant modern-day scene as well. With a large and superbly preserved historic center built up from the 11th to 18th centuries, when the city served as the capital of Bohemia and was a key city of the Habsburg monarchy and Austria-Hungary, exploring the city can feel like something akin to a fairy tale.

But Prague’s history isn’t only in its picturesque burgher houses and Gothic spires––as capital of Czechoslovakia during both World Wars and into the Communist era, Prague’s 20th-century history is one of the most fascinating in Europe, culminating in the peaceful Velvet Revolution of 1989. Take your time exploring the Old Town, Lesser Town, and New Town, relishing the beautiful architecture and considering the intriguing history contained within.

Old Town

Originally surrounded by a defensive wall and a semi-circular moat feeding from the Vltava river, Prague’s Old Town is filled with stunning architecture that reflects its status as one of Europe’s leading cultural centers during the Middle Ages.

Church of Saint Nicholas, Old Town Square

Its heart is the Old Town Square, a beautiful wide plaza that contains some of the city’s most important buildings. Chief among them are the Church of Our Lady before Týn, whose twin Gothic spires are visible from all over the city, and the Old Town Hall, whose facade holds a still-functioning astronomical clock that tracks the position of the sun and moon in the sky.

Astronomical Clock

The Old Town is also home to the historic University of Prague, one of the world’s oldest universities and the second founded in the Holy Roman Empire. Along the banks of the river is the magnificent Old Town Bridge Tower, which serves as the entrance to the picturesque Charles Bridge.

Charles Bridge

Lesser Town

The Malá Strana lies directly across the Vltava river from the Old Town, connected by the medieval stone arches of the Charles Bridge. The bridge’s namesake, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, greatly expanded the city of Prague in the 14th century to straddle both sides of the river.

Saint Nicholas Church, Lesser Town

The sophisticated Baroque and Renaissance architecture belies the district’s older history since the area was destroyed by a great fire in 1541, meaning that most of the buildings standing today were reconstructed in the decades following, such as the beautiful Saint Nicholas Church.

One notable exception is the Prague Castle, which was built in the 9th century on a hill high above the district.

Saint Vitus Cathedral

New Town

The New Town is not all that new, having been founded by Charles IV in 1348 on the other side of the city walls demarcating the Old Town to the south and east. But it was here that was the setting for many of the most important events in the 20th-century history of Czechoslovakia. In fact, much of the country’s history is rooted in Wenceslas Square, a 15th-century horse market that would become the city’s central square and meeting place. In 1918, the Czech and Slovak lands declared their independence from the crumbling empire of Austria-Hungary in front of the square’s monument to Wenceslas I, duke and patron saint of Bohemia; twenty years later, it would host mass demonstrations against Nazi Germany’s encroachments on the fledgling republic’s land.

The Nazis in turn used the square for mass demonstrations of their own, but the Czechs struck back against the occupying force with the partially-successful Prague Uprising in the spring of 1945. When Czechoslovakia was again invaded by a neighboring power, this time in 1968 by the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact in response to the liberal political reforms of the so-called Prague Spring, the square was again a center of protest, most notably the self-immolation of Jan Palach, a university student who set himself on fire in the middle of the square. And, finally, the Velvet Revolution of 1989 saw hundreds of thousands of Czechs take to the streets here in protest of four decades of one-party communist rule, resulting in the peaceful transition of power to the parliamentary republic we know today.

Notable buildings in the New Town include the National Museum, which fronts on Wenceslas Square, the New Town Hall, site of the first of the three defenestrations of Prague, the Baroque Saints Cyril and Methodius Cathedral, and the Frank Gehry-designed Dancing House. On the southern edge of the New Town sits the Vyšehrad, a 10th-century castle overlooking the Vltava below.