Franz Kafka has become a synonym for turn-of-the-century Prague like no other. Visitors come by the thousands to trace his footsteps on the banks of the Vltava river. Franz Kafka was born in 1883 on the outskirts of the then still existing Prague ghetto. After his studies at the German University of Prague, Kafka worked…
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When visiting the Prague Castle area, nobody miss the breathtaking St Vitus´ Cathedral. What a building filled with Czech history. In the 11th century, a three-nave basilica replaced an earlier Romanesque rotunda. It was to serve as the church where the Premyslid dynasty were crowned and buried. In 1344, Emperor Charles IV entrusted the French…
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Kampa Island is actually a peninsula which can be reached from the Lesser Town (as well as from Charles Bridge) and is situated between the Vltava and a creek called the “Devil´s Stream (Certovka). In medieval times it was a storage place for merchandise; over the course of the centuries, poor people, mostly washerwomen and…
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The square extends from Mustek, which borders the Old Town, up to the former Horse Gate, now the site of the National Museum. At the beginning of 19th century, the largest boulevard of Prague (750 m in length, 60 m wide) was still surrounded by buildings from one to three storeys in height; it only…
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The history of the National Gallery in Prague started to be written on 5 February 1796 when a group of significant representatives of the patriotically oriented Czech nobility along with several middle-class intellectuals from the ranks of Enlightenment movement decided (to put it in period terminology) to “elevate the deteriorated taste of the local public.”…
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If Wenceslas Square in the New Town is a point of culmination in recent national history, then the walls of the Old Town Square mirror the events of many centuries past that have left their mark in eminent buildings. The square is actually neither square nor rectangular, in fact, the ground plan is extremely irregular….
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With its impressive dome and 79 m high belfry, St Nicholas´ Church rises in the centre of the Lesser Town Square. This church is the most significant creation of high Baroque in Prague and was built between 1673 and 1755 on behalf of the Jesuits. It is a magnificent masterpiece of the Bavarian master builders…
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The Gothic Charles Bridge is considered to be one of the most important monuments of medieval architecture in Bohemia. The first stone bridge, the Judith Bridge, replaced the wooden construction in 1158. It stood firm and served Prague residents for almost two centuries until it was swept away by floods in 1342. At exactly the…
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