Hiking trails

VYŠEHRAD NATIONAL CULTURAL MONUMENT

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The tour of the complex takes 2-3 hours and Vyšehrad is best accessible from the Vyšehrad Metro station on the C line.

A beautiful view of Prague can be had from the terrace of the Congress Centre from where you continue towards the fortress’s walls. Vyšehrad has been inhabited since prehistoric times. In the 10th century, there was a Prince’s mint here, and in 1070, the chapter at the Church of St. Peter was founded. Shortly afterwards, the first King of Bohemia, Vratislav I, moved to Vyšehrad, and some of his successors also resided here. Charles IV built a new royal palace and had the entire Vyšehrad fortified. Most of the Gothic structures were destroyed at the time of the Hussite wars and though partly reconstructed in the 15th century, they never regained their previous significance. A new baroque stronghold was built in Vyšehrad in the 17th century which survived until 1911. Because of its close links with Czech history, Vyšehrad has become a symbol of the Czech national tradition and the National Cemetery was founded here.

Enter the compound through the Táborská brána gate, built in 1655 and named after the town of Tábor in South Bohemia because the road leading there passed through the gate.

Continue past the remains of the Špička Gothic gate with fragments of 14th-century town walls.

On your left stands the early-20th-century building of the Jedlička Institute, the first institution for handicapped children in the Austro-Hungarian Empire which is still in operation today.

Leopoldova brána gate with a former moat is an entrance to the inner fortress. Right in front of you stands the St. Martin Rotunda, the only surviving witness to the 11th-century Romanesque past of Vyšehrad.

Take the path on your left at the end of which archeologists discovered the remains of a medieval Church of St. Lawrence (sv. Vavřince). They first unearthed the foundations of an 11th-century Romanesque basilica, and later the foundations of a still earlier structure from around the year 1000.

Other remains of Romanesque architecture include a bridge from the time of the King Vratislav which was a part of the fortification surrounding the royal compound. It is to be seen in the adjacent park where there are four sculptures of mythological figures from Czech history. Sculptures by Josef Václav Myslbek originally stood at the two ends of the Palackého most bridge. During an air raid on Prague in February 1945 the bridge and the statues were damaged and later transferred to Vyšehrad as the bridge was enlarged.

Other remains of historic structures within the royal compound include the foundations of houses and parts of the Gothic walls, including the ground floor of a medieval defence tower, later rebuilt for residential purpose, and currently the venue of various exhibitions.

Vyšehrad’s landmark is the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, rebuilt in the neo-Gothic style at the turn of the 19th century after a design of Josef Mocker. The adjacent parish cemetery has since 1861 been used also as National Cemetery. The Slavín memorial is the burial ground of major Czech scientists and artists (like Emmy Destinn, Rafael Kubelík, his father Jan Kubelík, and others). Altogether, some 600 scientists, authors, poets, sculptors, painters, actors, musicians, and architects have been buried in the cemetery, including Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, and Karel Čapek, among many others. Because of their significance, the tombstones are usually sculptures made by other leading artists.

Walking across the cemetery towards the neo-Gothic Provost’s house you arrive at the Nová or Cihelná brána (New, or Brick Gate) with an exhibition dedicated to the history of Vyšehrad and the entrance to the accessible part of the casemates, or secret military passageways in the fortress. The underground corridor takes you to a large hall with the originals of some of the scultpures from Charles Bridge on display.

NEW TOWN OF PRAGUE

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The tour of this part of Prague takes a whole day, with half a day dedicated to the town itself and 2-3 hours to an inspection of Vyšehrad.

The New Town of Prague is the fourth, and last, of Prague’s towns which closed the medieval development of Prague. The town, founded in 1348 by Charles IV, was actually fully built-up only as late as in the 19th century. Its network of streets with three large marketplaces has been preserved to this day. Václavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square, originally the Horse Market), is now the centre of the city. The buildings in the square are from the 19th and 20th centuries, but the square has been here since the Middle Ages. At the lower end of the almost 1-kilometre-long square begins the Old Town, at the upper end stands the National Museum (Národní muzeum) built in the late 19th century in the neo-Renaissance style after a design of Josef Schulz.

Right in front of the museum is a memorial to Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc, two young men who burnt themselves to death in 1969 in protest against the Soviet occupation of the country.

The equestrian statue of St. Wenceslas surrounded by the country’s patron saints is the work of Josef Václav Myslbek from the turn of the last century. Not far from the National Museum stands another 19th-century structure, namely the State Opera (Státní opera), designed by the Viennese architects Hermann Hellmer and Ferdinand Fellner.

Wenceslas Square divides the New Town into “lower” with the parish Church of St. Jindřich a St. Kunhuta (St. Henry and St. Cunigund) on Jindřišská street, and “upper” with the parish Church of St. Štěpán (St. Stephen) on Štěpánská street.

You can then take the busy Vodičkova street with the neo-Renaissance Wiehlův dům house on the corner (Václavské náměstí 34/792).

A passageway connects Vodičkova street with the Františkánská zahrada (Franciscan garden) which once belonged to the Franciscan monastery. The Church of Our Lady of the Snows was founded by Charles IV in the mid-14th century but was never completed. Only the presbytery was built which, however, is the tallest church in Prague (33 metres). The interiors are in the early baroque style.

Take the passageway back to Vodičkova street and opposite you stands the Lucerna Palace (Palác Lucerna; Vodičkova 36/704), a large multi-functional compound built here by the grandfather of former Czech President Václav Havel.

The U Nováků house (Vodičkova 28/699) is yet another early 20th-century structure, designed by the architect Osvald Polívka in the Art Nouveau style.

The Vyšší dívčí škola girls’ school (Vodičkova 22/683) was designed by Ignaz Ullmann in the 19th century in the Czech neo-Renaissance style, typical of which is rich sgraffito decoration.

Karlovo náměstí (Charles Square; originally the Cattle Market) is Europe’s largest square covering an area of 80,500 sq m and is best seen in its entirety from the tower of the Novoměstská radnice (New Town Hall) in the north-eastern corner of the square. The town hall began to be built in the 1370s. A large part of the Gothic structure has survived in spite of the later reconstruction in the Renaissance style.

In the middle of the square, at its eastern side, stands the Church of St. Ignác (St. Ignatius) built in the early baroque style in the second half of the 17th century. Most of the interior furnishings date from that time.

At the opposite side of the square, Resslova street leads towards the Vltava River. It has two churches one opposite the other. Part of the Church of St. Cyril and Methodius is a Memorial of Reconciliation, in memory of the men who assassinated Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich at the time of the Nazi occupation and then were in hiding in this church. Opposite it stands the Romanesque Church of St. Wenceslas.

Return to Karlovo náměstí square and in the south-western corner take U nemocnice and then Kateřinská streets to Ke Karlovu where the baroque Michnův letohrádek (Michna Summer Palace), also known as Villa Amerika, designed by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, houses the Antonín Dvořák Museum (Ke Karlovu 20/462).

At the end of this street stands the Church of Our Lady and Charlemagne, also known as the Na Karlově Church, and once a monastery church. It was rebuilt several times but its original architecture from the time of Charles IV has been preserved. It is an octagonal structure, reminiscent of the Aachen church dedicated to Charlemagne.

Most of the other buildings on this street are hospitals. The tour may then continue back to Karlovo náměstí or across the Nuselský most bridge, past the Congress Centre to Vyšehrad.

The corner building at Karlovo náměstí 40/502, known as the Mladotův or Faustův dům (Mladota/Faust House) has a baroque facade on a Gothic palace dating from the 14th century. Several of its owners had devoted themselves to alchemy, and the Prague version of the Faust legend is linked to this building.

Continue to Vyšehradská street and through the gate at No. 49 enter the Emauzy (Emmaus monastery) compound of what was once a Benedictine monastery where services were conducted in the Slavonic language. It was founded by Charles IV and officially consecrated during Easter 1372. The monastery was seriously damaged at the end of World War II, during an air raid on Prague. As if by a miracle, the mid-14th-century wall paintings in the ambulatory survived.

The opposite Church of St. John on the Rock (sv. Jana Na skalce) is one of the finest examples of the Bohemian baroque, and was built in the first half of the 18th century by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer.

Vyšehradská street leads to the Botanical Gardens of Charles University, moved here 100 years ago from the opposite bank of the Vltava River, where it had been founded by the Empress Maria Theresa back in the 18th century.

Trojická street with the Baroque parish Church of the Holy Trinity (Nejsvětější Trojice) leads to the embankment. From here, you may either go left to inspect several Cubist houses at the foot of the Vyšehrad hill, or go right to the Palackého náměstí square with a memorial to František Palacký, a Czech historian, which is an early-20th century work by the sculptors Stanislav Sucharda and Josef Mařatka.

At the end of the row of houses on Rašínovo nábřeží embankment stands the Tančící dům (Dancing House; Rašínovo nábřeží 80/1981), completed in 1996 and designed by architects Frank O. Gehry and Vlado Milunič. The facade ressembles the waves of a river, the house’s silhouette a pair of dancers.

In Jiráskovo náměstí square stands a memorial to Alois Jirásek, a Czech writer who lived in one of the houses in the square.

The nearby water tower used to be a part of the onetime mills, most of which have since been demolished. Just like the other water towers in Prague, it dates from the late 15th century, but was rebuilt several times. Next to it, the Mánes building, which belongs to the artists’ association of the same name and was built in the Functionalist style, is used for exhibitions.

Masarykovo nábřeží embankment, dating mostly from the early 20th century, is a display of architectural styles. Probably the most interesting here is the Hlahol house (Masarykovo nábřeží 16/248) which belongs to the Hlahol choir, and was built in the Art Nouveau style by architect Josef Fanta.

Some of the islands on the Vltava River have become oases of greenery in the city. Slovanský ostrov (Slavonic Island) has been the venue of concerts and balls since the 19th century.

Národní divadlo (National Theatre) was a symbol of Czech emancipation in the then Czech-German Prague and was built in 1868-1881, financed from a nationwide collection of funds. The neo-Renaissance building designed by the architect Josef Zítek was destroyed in a fire shortly before it was scheduled to open and had to be built from scratch again. Construction then took only two years, and was designed by architect Josef Schulz. Bedřich Smetana’s opera Libuše opened the first season on November 18, 1883. Decorations in both the interior and exterior of the theatre are by leading Czech artists of the time. In the 1980s, when the theatre underwent large-scale reconstruction, several modern structures were built in the vicinity, one of which is now home to the Laterna Magika theatre.

THROUGH THE OLD TOWN OF PRAGUE AND JOSEFOV

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This is a tour to be made if you are staying longer in Prague. It consists of two parts of which the first is dedicated to the former Prague Jewish ghetto (and takes 4-5 hours), and the other is a tour of other places of interest across Prague’s oldest town, complete with a tour of the National Gallery collections (it takes another 4-5 hours).

Josefov is the name of Prague’s former Jewish Town, established as an independent fifth district within the territory of the Old Town of Prague following the emancipation of the Jewish population after 1850. It was named after Joseph II, under whom Prague’s Jews were at last granted some civil rights. The former ghetto used to be one of the poorest parts of the city and a large part of it was demolished at the turn of the 19th century. The only preserved structures are the synagogues, the town hall and the old Jewish cemetery. They survived through World War II simply because Hitler had wanted to set up in Prague a museum of the “former” Jewish nation.

Probably the most valuable structure in the Jewish ghetto is the Staronová synagoga (Old-New Synagogue). Although it is one of Prague’s earliest Gothic structures, it may still have had a predecessor. The Early Gothic synagogue consisting of a nave and an aisle dates from the 3rd quarter of the 13th century and has preserved its original appearance in spite of later partial reconstruction.

Opposite it on Červená street stands the Vysoká synagoga (High Synagogue) from the time of Rudolph II when the ghetto flourished in the late 16th century. The former Jewish town hall (Židovská radnice; Maiselova 18/250) on the corner dates from that time and has a clock with a Hebrew face. Both buildings underwent several reconstructions.

The U židovského hřbitova street takes you to Klausova (Klaus) Synagogue built in the early baroque style in the late 17th century and rebuilt in the 19th century.

Next to it stands the Old Jewish Cemetery (Starý židovský hřbitov) compound with the Pinkasova (Pinkas) Synagogue, built in the late 15th century in the Late Gothic style, and later rebuilt in the Renaissance style. In the course of the recent restoration, a Jewish ritual bath (mikvah) was discovered in the basement. Inside the synagogue is a memorial bearing the names of 77,000 Czech Jews who died in the Holocaust. The earliest tombstone in the Jewish cemetery dates from 1439. Because of lack of space the cemetery has several layers. The 12,000 tombstones have been erected here in the course of 350 years. The best known is probably the tombstone of Rabbi Löw, allegedly the creator of the Golem.

When this cemetery was closed down in the late 18th century, the New Jewish Cemetery was founded outside the limits of the then Prague (near the present-day Želivského Metro station) where Franz Kafka, Prague’s greatest Jewish author is buried. Weary visitors find themselves comfortably seated in the kosher King Salomon Restaurant (Široká 8, see p. 132).

Maiselova (Maisl) Synagogue (Maiselova 8/63), named after its founder, was built in the late 16th century in the Renaissance style but since rebuilt in the neo-Gothic style.

Most of these buildings at present house valuable collections and organise exhibitions. The Old-New Synagogue still serves its original purpose. Španělská (Spanish) Synagogue is located outside the centre of the former ghetto, on Dušní street, and was built in the late 19th century.

Along the banks of the Vltava River there are also many Christian structures as well as modern buildings in pseudo-historic styles, the Art Nouveau and the Cubist style of the turn of the 19th century. Čechův most bridge, not far from the former ghetto, is the shortest bridge across the Vltava River, the first of Prague’s 20th-century bridges (built in 1906), and the only one in the Art Nouveau style. It is remarkable for its rich decorations and illumination. This way to the Les Moules Restaurant, well known for its excellent cuisine (see p. 132).

Continue along the embankment past the hospital with a long history to the large complex of the Convent of St. Agnes (Anežský klášter; Na Františku 811). It was founded at the same time as the Old Town of Prague in the 1230s by King Wenceslas I, his wife Cunigund, and his sister Agnes of Bohemia, who became its abbess. It was originally a convent of the Poor Clares and a monastery of the Friars Minor, and also the first ever Gothic structure on Bohemian territory. A large-scale reconstruction of the complex for the National Gallery was completed in the 1980s.

The border between Prague’s two historic towns, namely the Old and the New Towns, runs along Revoluční street across náměstí Republiky square, Na příkopě and Národní streets. Most of the buildings here date from the 19th and 20th centuries and are a textbook of modern styles. Walking along this border at the lower end of Václavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square), you reach Můstek, named after a bridge which in the Middle Ages spanned the moat between the two towns and the remains of which can be seen on the basement level of the Metro station of the same name.

The short street Na můstku takes you to yet another of Prague’s towns, namely the New Town of St. Gall (Havelské Město), whose independence, however, was only short-lived. Located between Ovocný trh (Fruit Market) and Uhelný trh (Coal Market), it was founded at the time when the Old Town walls were built. As early as in the 13th century it was integrated into the surrounding town (and is recalled only by several regular streets, uncommon in this part of the town).

In the centre of the settlement, the Church of St. Havel (St. Gall) was originally a parish church built in the Gothic style, but rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries in the baroque style. It then became a part of the Carmelite monastery, until Joseph II’s reforms in the late 18th century.

In front of the church, a roofed marketplace (kotce) was built in 1362 which extended as far as Uhelný trh and, though in a different form, has survived here to this date. The neo-Renaissance building of the Česká spořitelna savings bank (Rytířská 29/536), designed by the leading architect Antonín Wiehl, was built here in the late 19th century.

On the opposite side of the street, the house U modré růže (At the Blue Rose; Rytířská 24/399) is a Gothic house rebuilt in the baroque style.

At one end of Rytířská street stands the Estates Theatre (Stavovské divadlo), at the other end is the Uhelný trh (Coal Market) square with the house U tří zlatých lvů (At the Three Golden Lions) with a memorial tablet commemorating the stay here of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. On the corner of the opposite house known as Platýz, a memorial plaque commemorates the stay in Prague of Ferencz Liszt.

Not far from here stands the Church of St. Martin in the Walls so named because the 12th-century Romanesque church which once stood in the centre of a settlement was partly integrated into the town walls. It was rebuilt in the Gothic style and served as a parish church. The Brokoff family of leading baroque sculptors were buried in the adjacent cemetery which, however, no longer exists.

Husova street, the communication axis of this part of the town, has a history dating back to the Romanesque period but archeological excavations suggest that it may be even older than that. As the terrain was gradually raised, the ground floors of the Romanesque houses are now in the basement of the current houses. The many churches and chapels which once stood here but of which only very few have survived attest to the then density of the population. Right on Husova street stands the Church of sv. Jiljí (St. Giles), originally a parish church, then a chapter church, and eventually a monastery church. The medieval church was rebuilt in the baroque style and decorated with frescoes by Václav Vavřinec Reiner who is buried in the church.

In the nearby Betlémské náměstí (Bethlehem Square) stands the reconstructed Bethlehem Chapel (Betlémská kaple), which was built in 1391 and where Master Jan Hus preached for several years from 1402. His execution by burning at the stake on July 6, 1415 in Constance (Germany) became a milestone in Czech history. Martin Luther called him his teacher and there is an exhibition in the chapel on the development of the non-Catholic Churches and thinking.

Rotunda sv. Kříže (Rotunda of the Holy Rood) on Karoliny Světlé street is a Romanesque church which has survived to this date. There used to be many more churches like this here. It dates from the 12th century and is still used for religious purposes.

The tour ends in the Smetanovo nábřeží embankment, Prague’s oldest one, dating from the 1840s and named after leading Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. A beautiful view can be had from here of Prague’s famous skyline.

TOUR OF MALÁ STRANA

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The tour of Malá Strana includes visits to the gardens and inspection of other places of interest and takes between half a day and a whole day. To see everything it offers it is best to make the tour between April and late October, starting at the Malostranská Metro station or walking from Hradčanské náměstí square down the Zámecké schody (Castle Staircase).

In Valdštejnské náměstí (Wallenstein Square) is the entrance to the garden of Ledeburský palác (Ledebour Palace; Valdštejnské náměstí 3/162). This early-18th-century garden is one of the ring of palace gardens on the southern slopes below Prague Castle. The others are the Pálffy, Kolowrat, and Fürstenberg gardens (the last mentioned one belongs to the Polish Embassy and is closed to the public). The baroque gardens are a specific feature of Prague’s architecture. They are terraced thanks to which beautiful views can be had from them of the entire city. From Valdštejnské náměstí, you can walk through the compound of Valdštejnský palác (Wallenstein Palace) which Albrecht of Wallenstein, general of the imperial army, had built here in the 1620s. The palace has richly decorated interiors and a large garden. The palace is partly home to the Czech Senate, and its historic rooms will be accessible to the public after restoration is completed. The Valdštejnská zahrada (Wallenstein Garden) is connected with the palace by a sala terrena decorated with painted scenes from the Trojan war. The ingeniously landscaped garden is adorned with copies of bronze statues made by Adrien de Vries (the originals of which were taken away as booty by the Swedish army at the end of the Thirty Years’ War).

Exit the palace compound at Klárov and take U lužického semináře street to Vojanovy sady, Prague’s oldest gardens. As early as in the second half of the 12th century, this space was a part of the bishop’s court. It remained in use after the palace was destroyed and in the 17th century was integrated as a garden into the Carmelite convent. The Carmelites had two chapels built here. The garden later served as recreation ground for young girls attending the school of the Order of English Virgins, and in the 20th century became accessible to the public.

U lužického semináře street (named after the Lusetian seminary once housed in No. 13/90) takes you to the Kampa island formed next to Charles Bridge by an arm of the Vltava River and also referred to as the Venice of Prague. The island’s current appearance dates from the 16th century when remains of the Malá Strana houses destroyed in the 1541 fire were dumped here, raising the ground level. Thanks to this, a part of the island was firm enough for houses to be built on it. The other half of the island is formed by gardens, open to the public since the 20th century. Some of the mills that once stood here have been preserved to date, among them the Štěpánovský mlýn mill in the Renaissance style, or the Velkopřevorský mlýn with a huge wheel visible from Charles Bridge. Further upstream of the Čertovka arm of the Vltava River stands the Huť mill with a smaller wheel. The Sovovy mlýny compound is currently being restored and will then be used as an art gallery.

Leave the island at the Church of St. John at the Laundry, whose name dates from the time when it was used as a laundry having been abolished by Joseph II. It regained its status as a church and its current appearance is the result of several reconstructions. However, the church stood here as early as in the 12th century, even before Malá Strana was founded.

Take Říční street where a memorial plaque on house No. 11/532 commemorates the stay of Karel Čapek, one of the greatest Czech authors, and his brother Josef Čapek, a leading painter who died in a concentration camp during World War II.

You are now in Újezd and have two options:

1. Either take the funicular railway or walk up Petřín Hill, with the Hladová zeď (Hunger Wall) perimeter wall from the time of Charles IV, a wooden church moved to Prague from Sub-carpathian Ukraine in the 1920s, the Štefánikova Observatory (Hvězdárna), the mirror Maze (Bludiště), and Rozhledna, a downsized copy of the Eiffel Tower built in 1891. From there you can either return back to Újezd or walk to the Strahov Monastery in Pohořelec.

2. Or you may decide to leave out the tour of Petřín, take Újezd street to Karmelitská, passing by the small Church of St. Lawrence (sv. Vavřince) in Hellichova. This church, too, is older than Malá Strana itself, and used to be the parish church of the one-time settlement of Opatovice back in the 12th century. It has been restored recently and is used for concerts. The Church of Our Lady Victorious in Karmelitská was originally a Lutheran prayer house, given to the Carmelites at the time of re-Catholicisation. The church is famous especially for the statue of the Bambino di Praga (Infant Jesus of Prague), donated to the church by Polyxena of Lobkowicz in 1628. Also in Karmelitská stands the Vrtbovský palác (Vrtba Palace; Karmelitská 25/373). Behind the inconspicous facade is a great surprise. Take the passageway to the Vrtbovská zahrada garden, one of Prague’s most beautiful baroque gardens. It is also a terraced garden, designed by František Maxmilian Kaňka with sculptural decorations by Matthias Bernard Braun, and the frescoes in the sala terrena the work of Václav Vavřinec Reiner, the three men having been leading artists of their time. Take the narrow Prokopská street to Maltézské náměstí square. The St. John the Baptist group of statues stands in front of the Church of Our Lady below the Chain, the main church of the commandery of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem dating from the 12th century. The house U zlatého jednorožce (At the Golden Unicorn; Lázeňská 11/285) bears a memorial plaque commemorating the stay here of Ludwig van Beethoven.

At the other end of Lázeňská street you may enjoy the unusual calm of Velkopřevorské náměstí square with several Renaissance and baroque buildings. Walk past the Velkopřevorský mlýn mill back to Kampa island or up the stairs to Charles Bridge

TOUR OF THE TOWN OF HRADČANY

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The town of Hradčany was founded as the third town of Prague after 1320, under the reign of King John of Luxembourg, but was granted the full rights of a free royal town only under Emperor Rudolph II. The tour may start at Pohořelec and may be followed by the tour of Prague Castle, or vice versa. Without an inspection of the interiors, two hours will suffice, interiors included it may take half a day.

Pohořelec is one of the three squares of this smallest of Prague’s towns and its Czech name alludes to the local frequent fires. The memorial of two astronomers, Johann Kepler and Tycho de Brahe, was erected here in memory of the house where the latter once lived. He died in Prague in 1601 and is buried in the Church of Our Lady before Týn.

The Strahov Cloister and grounds were created in the middle of the 12th century as a fortified complex of buildings even before the founding of the city of Hradčan. The Norbertines came here then and except for a period of time during the communist regime, still remain today. Evidence of hundreds of years of building can be found here – including remains from the Roman, gothic and baroque eras. The local cloister picture gallery and library are accessible to visitors.

Loretánské náměstí (Loreto Square) is named after the Loreto, a baroque compound of structures including the the Church of the Nativity (Narození Páně), gradually built around a copy of the alleged house of the Virgin Mary which stood here from 1626. The architects who worked at the compound included the two Dientzenhofers. Part of the Loreto treasure is the Diamond Monstrance decorated with 6,222 diamonds. The famous carillon dates from the late 17th century.

Also on the square is the Capuchin Monastery with the Church of Our Lady Angelic built in 1600.

The entire western side of the square is occupied by the Černínský palác (Černín Palace), one of Prague’s most monumental structures. It started to be built in the second half of the 17th century and was still not completed in the 18th century. From the mid-19th century on it was used by the military, and since the creation of the independent Czechoslovakia in 1918 to date it has been home to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Passing by the palace gardens we arrive at Nový svět, once the suburbs of Hradčany whose tiny picturesque houses are now inhabited mostly by artists.

At the end of the street stands the Church of St. John of Nepomuk, dedicated to the saint in the year of his canonisation in 1729. At that time it belonged to the Ursuline Convent, dissolved by Emperor Joseph II. It was then used by the military.

The house in the opposite corner is usually referred to as the dům pážat (Pages’ House; Kanovnická 3/69) and has been preserved in its Renaissance form.

Take the U kasáren street leading to Loretánská. On your left stands the Martinic Palace (Loretánská 4/181), currently home to the Castle Guards. It was built in the early 18th century after a design by the Roman architect Carlo Fontana.

At the end of the street stands the Hradčany town hall (Hradčanská radnice; Loretánská 1/173). It was built in the Renaissance style in the late 16th century when the town was granted the full rights of a free royal town by Rudolph II. Hradčany’s coat of arms is above the entrance, and on the right-hand side is the “Hradčany elbow”.

On your right, the baroque Radniční schody (Town Hall Staircase) leads to Nerudova street below. It is overlooked by the Carmelite convent with the Church of St. Benedict. The church dates from the 14th century, but became a monastic church only in the 17th century, when it belonged to the male order of the Barnabites. The Carmelites came here at the end of the 18th century, bringing with them a mummy of the founder of Prague’s first convent which is still in the church.

On the opposite corner stands the Toskánský palác (Tuscany Palace; Hradčanské náměstí 5/182). Its early baroque reconstruction was designed by the architect J.B. Mathey, the sculptural decorations on the attic are from the workshop of Johann Brokoff, and the Archangel Michael on the corner opposite the town hall is the work of O. Most.

The Martinic Palace (the second of its name) stands in the corner of the square (Hradčanské náměstí 8/67). It was only in the 1970s that its Renaissance decorations from the turn of the 16th century were fully uncovered and restored.

The Schwarzenberský palác (Schwarzenberg Palace; Hradčanské náměstí 2/185) is yet another example of Renaissance architecture, dating from the mid-16th century and currently housing the Museum of Military History. A baroque Marian Column from the early 18th century, the work of Ferdinand Maxmilian Brokoff, stands in the park in the square in front of the palace.

The Šternberský palác (Sternberg Palace; Hradčanské náměstí 15/57) was built at the turn of the 17th century in the northern part of the square, next to the Jelení příkop (Stag Moat). It has been used since the 19th century as a picture gallery, and at present houses the National Gallery collections of old European art.

The entrance to the picture gallery is somewhat obscured by the Arcibiskupský palác (Archbishop’s Palace; Hradčanské náměstí 16/56). The original residence of the archbishop in Malá Strana was destroyed by the Hussites. The archbishop’s seat was restored in Prague only in 1562 and this is when the palace was built. It was then reconstructed in the 17th and 18th centuries.