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Culture, design & architecture

Choose what to see — don’t try to see everything

Do not overpack museum days: fewer stops and more outdoor breaks.

Castle & Gothic Prague

The world’s largest ancient castle complex. The grounds open 6:00–22:00; the historic buildings 9:00–16:00 in winter. The gardens are closed until March.

St Vitus Cathedral

Six centuries in the making: Gothic choir by Peter Parler, a Mucha window and the jewelled Wenceslas Chapel. Opens at noon on Sundays.

Staré Město / Malá Strana

The 14th-century stone bridge lined with Baroque statues. Cross at dawn for an empty bridge, and again at dusk for the lights.

Old Town Square & Astronomical Clock

The Týn Church’s spires, the Gothic Town Hall and its 15th-century clock, which performs on the hour.

Jewish Museum & Old-New Synagogue

Synagogues, the Old Jewish Cemetery and one of Europe’s oldest working synagogues. Closed on Saturdays and Jewish holidays.

Convent of St Agnes

The National Gallery’s medieval art in a restored Gothic convent; calm and rarely crowded.

Baroque & Art Nouveau

St Nicholas Church, Malá Strana

The high point of Prague Baroque by the Dientzenhofers, with a green dome over the square.

Strahov Monastery Library

Two painted Baroque library halls, seen from the doorway; combine with the Loreta next door.

A pilgrimage shrine with a carillon and a famous diamond monstrance in the treasury.

Municipal House (Obecní dům)

Prague’s Art Nouveau showpiece, with Mucha’s Lord Mayor’s Hall. Join a guided tour to see the interiors.

National Museum

The Neo-Renaissance building at the top of Wenceslas Square, with a grand pantheon, history galleries and a glass dome.

Cubism & Functionalism

House of the Black Madonna

Josef Gočár’s 1912 department store, the first Cubist building in Prague. It houses the UPM’s Czech Cubism exhibition.

Cubist lamppost

A 1913 Cubist street lamp tucked beside the Church of Our Lady of the Snows, off Jungmannovo square.

Cubist villas below Vyšehrad

Josef Chochol’s Kovařovic Villa and the apartment house on Neklanova: crystalline façades a short walk from the fortress.

Adolf Loos’s 1930 masterpiece of the Raumplan, where rooms climb on split levels. Guided tours only, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; book ahead.

Trade Fair Palace (Veletržní palác)

A vast 1928 Functionalist hall, now the National Gallery’s modern and contemporary art. The atrium alone is worth it.

Baba housing estate

A 1932 Werkbund colony of Functionalist family houses on a hill in Dejvice. Private homes: walk the streets only.

Museum of Decorative Arts (UPM)

Glass, furniture and fashion from Bohemia’s workshops, in a restored Neo-Renaissance building near the Rudolfinum.

Modern & contemporary

Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunić’s 1996 “Fred and Ginger” on the riverbank, with a gallery on the ground floor.

Church of the Sacred Heart

Jože Plečnik’s 1932 brick church with a giant glass clock in its tower, on Jiřího z Poděbrad square.

Žižkov Television Tower

A 1990s concrete rocket with David Černý’s crawling babies, an observation deck and a restaurant.

Kunsthalle Praha

A converted 1930s electrical substation by the river, now a private art centre with changing exhibitions.

DOX Centre for Contemporary Art

A former factory with the wooden Gulliver airship on its roof; thought-provoking exhibitions.

Central European modern art in an old mill on Kampa island, with large sculptures along the river.

Architecture walk

Gothic to Cubism in a morning

Powder Tower, the Municipal House, then Celetná to the House of the Black Madonna and on to Old Town Square.

Royal Way

Old Town Square, Karlova street, Charles Bridge, Mostecká and up Nerudova to the Castle: the coronation route.

Vyšehrad loop

The fortress, the basilica and the national cemetery, then down the steps to Chochol’s Cubist houses.

Letná to Holešovice

The Metronome above the river, Letná Park, then the Trade Fair Palace and DOX.

Evenings

Charles Bridge at dusk

Market lights

A concert at the Rudolfinum

National Theatre

Castle by night

View from Letná

Many museums close on Mondays and keep shorter hours on 24–26 and 31 December. Book Villa Müller and Municipal House tours in advance, and check each site’s holiday hours.

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