5 Days in Prague

Old Town Square is where Prague stages both its parties and its tragedies. On 21 June 1621, 27 leaders of the Bohemian revolt were executed here, and 27 crosses set into the cobbles in front of the Old Town Hall still mark the spot. The huge Art Nouveau monument in the middle honors Jan Hus, burned at the stake in 1415. Behind the Baroque houses rise the 80 m towers of the Týn Church, a Hussite church until the Catholics took over in 1626 and replaced the Hussite chalice on its gable with a Virgin Mary whose halo was cast from the melted chalice.

The Astronomical Clock on the Old Town Hall dates from 1410, built by the clockmaker Mikuláš of Kadaň, probably to a design by the astronomer Jan Šindel. You'll hear that the city blinded its maker so he could never build another. That's a myth. Fire during the Prague Uprising on 8 May 1945 wrecked the wooden parts, and the clock ran again in 1948. A few minutes before the hour, Death pulls his bell cord, the Apostles file past two windows and a rooster crows, all in about a minute, in front of a forest of phones. The dial itself is more interesting than the show.

Five minutes north is Josefov, named after Emperor Joseph II, who eased the restrictions on Jews in the 1780s. Before that, Prague's Jews lived in a walled ghetto here. Most of its crooked streets were torn down between 1893 and 1913 in a Paris-style clearance, and what survived is six synagogues, a town hall and one of the most moving cemeteries in Europe. Franz Kafka was born in 1883 on the edge of the quarter.

Buy the Jewish Museum ticket at the Visitor Centre, Maiselova 15. It's valid for three opening days and covers the open synagogues (Maisel, Pinkas, Klausen, Spanish) and the Old Jewish Cemetery, used from the 15th century until 1786. With no room to expand, graves were layered on top of each other, so the tilted stones stand packed like crooked teeth. The Old-New Synagogue, built around 1270, is one of the oldest in Europe still in use, and legend says Rabbi Loew's clay Golem sleeps in its attic. The Jewish Community runs it separately and sells its own entry, so ask at the door.

Walk ten minutes east to the Municipal House (Obecní dům), the finest Art Nouveau building in town. It opened in 1912 on the site of the old royal court, and it was here, on 28 October 1918, that Czechoslovak independence was declared. Next door the Gothic Powder Tower, a gate of the old city walls, can be climbed for a view over the rooftops (open 10-18 in October).

The basement beer hall (pivnice) is open 11:30 to 22:00 daily, serves Pilsner Urquell and traditional dishes under tiled arches, and is the easiest place to try svíčková on day one. It's aimed at visitors, but the setting justifies it. The café upstairs is for coffee and cake.

Walk back west along Celetná street to the Klementinum, a vast Jesuit college founded in 1556. In 1622 the Jesuits took over the library of Charles University, and the Baroque library hall was built between 1709 and 1726.

The 45-minute guided tour is the only way in, about 15 EUR (380 CZK): into the library, a hall of painted ceilings, old globes and leather-bound books that you view but may not enter, then up the 172 steps of the Astronomical Tower for a view across the rooftops towards the Castle.

Charles Bridge is 516 m long and was begun in 1357 under Charles IV. About 30 mostly Baroque statues line it. Every guide repeats that eggs were mixed into the mortar. It's a legend, and lab tests on mortar samples haven't settled it either way. The oldest legend is true enough: in 1393 the priest John of Nepomuk was reportedly thrown from the bridge by order of King Wenceslas IV, and a cross on the parapet marks the spot. People rub the bronze plaque under his statue for luck, and it shines.

By day it's a slow river of tourists, portrait painters and brass bands. Come at dusk, or at dawn if you can face it, and walk to the middle to watch the Castle light up behind the Lesser Town towers.

Ten minutes from the bridge, U Medvídků is one of the biggest and oldest beer halls in the Old Town, with its own small brewery. The house says brewing here goes back to 1466 under one Jan Medvídek, the little bear of the name, but that date is the venue's own claim.

Order a half-liter and something with gravy, such as goulash or roast pork. It's a huge, loud hall, which is the point, and it's open daily until 22:00 or 23:00, so check your night.

Prague Castle began around 870 as a walled church and kept growing for a thousand years, a patchwork of Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque. Guinness lists it as the largest ancient castle in the world, almost 570 m long, and the Czech president still works here. In 1618 two imperial governors were thrown out of a window of the Bohemian Chancellery here, the Third Defenestration of Prague, which started the Bohemian Revolt. St. Vitus Cathedral was begun under Charles IV in the 14th century and finished only on 28 September 1929.

The basic ticket covers the cathedral, the Old Royal Palace with its enormous Vladislav Hall, St. George's Basilica and the Golden Lane, a row of tiny 16th-century houses named for the goldsmiths who lived there. The alchemists in the guidebooks are legend. The changing of the guard is at noon in the First Courtyard. The grounds are free, open 6 to 22.

Leave through the main gate onto Hradčany Square and walk ten minutes to Loretánské náměstí. U Černého vola, At the Black Ox, is a plain brown beer hall, open daily from 10 to 22, with bench seating, simple pub food and a crowd of neighbors and tourists who found it by accident.

It's the opposite of the polished Old Town halls, with no performance. Sit down wherever there's space.

Strahov Monastery was founded in 1143 for the Premonstratensians. Its Baroque Theological Hall and the later Philosophical Hall are among the best library rooms in Europe, with painted ceilings and wooden cabinets floor to ceiling.

You look in from the doorway rather than walk among the books, which takes about twenty minutes and is enough. The library is open daily from 9 to 17, and the monastery brewery in the courtyard (revived in 2000) is open from 10 to 22.

Loreta is a Baroque pilgrimage complex, built around a replica of the Holy House of Loreto, the house in which the Virgin Mary is said to have lived in Nazareth. Cloisters and chapels surround it, and the tower carries a 27-bell carillon that plays a Marian hymn every hour.

The treasury is the reason to pay. Its star is the Prague Sun, a monstrance set with 6,222 diamonds. The visit takes about an hour, and it's open daily from 10 to 17, so don't arrive at 16:45.

Walk ten minutes east through the park to the Petřín Lookout Tower, built in 1891 for the Jubilee Exhibition as a loose, one-fifth-scale copy of the Eiffel Tower. It's about 60 m tall with 299 steps, open daily 10 to 18 in October, and costs 250 CZK (about 10 EUR) plus 150 CZK for the lift.

The view is better than from the Castle for one simple reason: the Castle is in it. Take the funicular down. It reopened on 22 September 2026 with new cars after a two-year break and runs every ten minutes. A single ticket costs 100 CZK, and the 24- and 72-hour tickets are valid on it, the 30- and 90-minute ones aren't.

The Lennon Wall on Velkopřevorské náměstí became a protest wall after John Lennon's murder in 1980. In communist Czechoslovakia, students covered it with lyrics and peace slogans, and the police repainted it again and again. The Order of Malta, which owns the wall, allowed all graffiti until 2019; spray painting is now banned.

Behind it lies Kampa Island, separated from the Lesser Town by the Čertovka, the Devil's Stream, which once drove old mills. Museum Kampa, in a former mill, shows Czech modern art (daily 10-18, 280 CZK), and the Franz Kafka Museum (10-18, 300 CZK) is in the old Herget Brickworks by the river.

Finish on Malostranské náměstí, the Lesser Town square dominated by the dome of St. Nicholas Church. The church is open daily (9-18 at the time of writing, 150 CZK) and holds evening concerts at 18:00 on selected days in October.

For dinner, U Glaubiců sits in a historic house on the square and is open from 10:30 to 23:00 daily. It's a traditional restaurant with beer on tap, priced for the location, but the square after dark is worth it. Walk back over the bridge afterwards.

Wenceslas Square isn't really a square, it's a long, sloping boulevard laid out as the horse market of the New Town founded by Charles IV. The statue of St. Wenceslas in front of the National Museum was unveiled in 1912, and on 28 October 1918 the author Alois Jirásek read the declaration of Czechoslovak independence here. In January 1969 the student Jan Palach set himself on fire at the top of the square to protest the crushing of the Prague Spring. In November 1989, hundreds of thousands filled it during the Velvet Revolution, with Alexander Dubček and Václav Havel together on the balcony of the Melantrich building.

Today the lower part is shops, casinos and fast food, tackier than its history deserves, so look up at the facades. The National Museum at the top reopened in 2018 after a long renovation, and its domed Pantheon is the part worth paying for. Locals meet pod ocasem, under the horse's tail.

A five-minute walk away in the Kaunický Palace is the Mucha Museum, devoted to Alphonse Mucha, the Czech painter who defined Art Nouveau with his theatrical posters, tall women in flowing hair and floral borders. It follows him from Paris to his later patriotic work.

It's small, takes an hour and is open daily from 10 to 18. The posters are the draw, so it rewards anyone who likes his style and bores anyone who doesn't. His grave is at Vyšehrad, on day five. His huge Slav Epic cycle isn't in Prague at the moment: it hangs in the château at Moravský Krumlov, near Brno and about 200 km away, on a loan Prague has extended until 2031.

Walk to Národní třída, where riot police stopped a student march on 17 November 1989, the spark of the Velvet Revolution. A few doors down, Café Louvre opened in 1902, and it's one of the few old Prague cafés that opens early, at 8 on weekdays and 9 at weekends, and stays open until 23:30.

The interior of tall windows and old wood is the point. Come for a late breakfast or a light lunch. For a heavier meal with beer, U Fleků, brewing since 1499, is five minutes away.

Take the metro to Vltavská and walk to the Veletržní Palace, a Functionalist building finished in 1928 that was the largest of its kind in the world at the time. It now houses the National Gallery's modern and contemporary art, with Picasso, Braque, Renoir, van Gogh and Klimt among the names.

Spend most of your time on the Czech collection, which you won't see elsewhere: Czech Cubism, the interwar avant-garde and the art of the communist decades. It's open Tuesday to Sunday, 10-18.

Walk fifteen minutes through Letná Park to the plateau above the river. The giant Metronome stands on the pedestal of the largest Stalin monument ever built, a 15.5 m granite group unveiled on 1 May 1955. Its sculptor, Otakar Švec, took his own life before the unveiling, and in late 1962 the monument was blown up with 800 kilograms of explosives. The metronome has ticked there since 1991, and in 1996 a statue of Michael Jackson, about 11 m tall, briefly stood in its place. Letná was also the site of the huge Velvet Revolution rallies on 25 and 26 November 1989.

The view from the edge is the best free sunset in Prague, with the river, the bridges and the Old Town laid out below. The open-air bar under the Metronome runs only from spring to September, so in October it's closed.

Five minutes along the edge of the park is the Hanavský Pavilion, a cast-iron building with a terrace and restaurant that looks across the river to the Old Town. The kitchen closes early, so dinner here is an early one.

You come here for the view rather than the cooking. Book a window table ahead.

In 1278 the abbot of the Sedlec monastery came back from the Holy Land with a handful of earth from Golgotha and sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery, and everyone wanted to be buried there. The plague and the Hussite wars did the rest, and the chapel became a store for the bones of an estimated 40,000 to 70,000 people. In 1870 the Schwarzenberg family hired the woodcarver František Rint to put the heaps in order. The result at the Sedlec Ossuary is a chandelier made of at least one of every bone in the body and the family coat of arms in bone, signed by Rint.

It's less creepy than you'd expect: quiet, sober and surprisingly beautiful. Next door the Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady, a Gothic abbey church from around 1300 that the Hussites wrecked in 1421 and Baroque builders restored in the early 1700s, needs a separate ticket (also 220 CZK).

Take a bus or taxi into the old center, or walk if you prefer. V Ruthardce on Dačického náměstí is a restaurant in a historic building with a traditional Czech menu. Mains were around 190-235 CZK in the autumn, among them smažený sýr, goulash with bread dumplings and roast pork with red cabbage, with Plzeň on draft.

It's open from 11 to 23 (to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays). The menu changes weekly.

Kutná Hora got rich on silver. Around 1300 it became the seat of the central mint of the Czech lands, where the Prague groschen was struck, and grew into the kingdom's second town after Prague. The Italian Court (Vlašský dvůr) was the royal mint and a royal residence, a short walk from the restaurant.

Walk towards St. Barbara's past the Jesuit College, now a regional gallery. Silver mine tours at Hrádek run in season, so check before you go.

St. Barbara's Cathedral is the monument to the town's wealth. Barbara is the patron saint of miners, which fits a town built on silver. Work started in 1388, stopped for more than 60 years during the Hussite Wars, resumed in 1481 and, with the silver running out, wasn't finished until 1905. The three-peaked roof dates from 1588.

The Gothic vaults inside are the draw, and the church stands over the valley, so take a minute outside too. Together with Sedlec it put the town on the UNESCO list in 1995. Trains back to Prague take about 50 minutes to an hour.

The embankment under the arches south of the center turns into a Saturday morning market from 8 to 14, with seasonal fruit and vegetables, pastries, mushrooms, fresh fish, cheese and eggs, plus a row of coffee and sausage stands. It's a market for residents, not a tourist show. If a big event is on the embankment, the market moves to Palackého náměstí nearby.

Get a coffee, buy something warm to eat and stroll along the quay. In autumn you may find burčák, the new cloudy wine.

A few minutes' walk north along the embankment stands the Dancing House, nicknamed Ginger and Fred after the dancers Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Vlado Milunić and Frank Gehry designed it in 1992, and it was finished in 1996 on a plot where a house destroyed in the 1945 bombing had stood. Václav Havel, who lived next door, backed the project.

Some Praguers find it out of place beside the 19th-century facades. Judge for yourself from across the street. The National Theatre is a short walk away, and Café Slavia sits across the street from it.

Vyšehrad is a fortress on a rock about 3 km southeast of the Castle, and Czech legend says it was the first settlement that became Prague. Princess Libuše is supposed to have foreseen the city's glory from here. The Rotunda of St. Martin, from the 11th century, is the oldest surviving rotunda in Prague. The Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul, finished in its neo-Gothic form in 1903, is open until 18:00 on Saturdays in October.

The real draw is the cemetery, with the Slavín tomb at its center. Dvořák, Smetana, the writer Karel Čapek and Alphonse Mucha are buried here, and Czechs come to visit their cultural heroes. Walk the walls for the view over the Vltava.

Take the metro to the main station and walk up Vítkov Hill. In 1420 Jan Žižka and his Hussites beat the crusader army of King Sigismund here, and on top stands the National Monument, built between 1928 and 1938 to honor Czechoslovak legionaries. In front is a bronze statue of Žižka on horseback, one of the largest in the world.

After 1948 the communists used the building to promote themselves, and between 1954 and 1962 it housed the mausoleum of Klement Gottwald. The old statehood exhibition is closed for good. What you can see now is the Ceremonial Hall, the Presidential Salon, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the terrace and café with the view. It's free, open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 to 18, and closed on Mondays.

A 15-minute walk from the monument is the Žižkov Television Tower, built between 1985 and 1992. At 216 m it's the tallest building in the city, and the observation deck sits at 93 m. It's open daily from 9 until late in the evening. Ten giant babies by David Černý have crawled up its legs since 2000.

Locals have always argued about whether it's an eyesore or an icon. Either way, dusk gives you a 360 degree view of the city lighting up.

Žižkov is the pub district, and U Vystřelenýho oka, "At the Shot-Out Eye", is a good one to start in. The name goes back to Jan Žižka, who lost an eye in battle. It's an old Prague pub with a courtyard and a small stage, where concerts and readings happen. It's open Monday to Saturday from 16:30 to 1:00 and closed on Sundays.

Order a half-liter and a plate of smažený sýr or bramboráky. If it's still light and you want a castle view with your beer, the beer garden in Riegrovy sady is ten minutes west.