Prague Attractions: Top 26 Unique Places

Prague is right­ful­ly the most pop­u­lar tourist city in Europe. Numer­ous trav­el­ers are attract­ed here by the inde­scrib­able atmos­phere of the Mid­dle Ages and numer­ous sights of Prague, sur­round­ed by leg­ends. You can come here again and again, but even then you won’t be able to explore all the inter­est­ing mon­u­ments and places. This is the city that opens up some­thing new every time. Prague has every­thing a tourist needs, from excel­lent Czech cui­sine and the best beer in the world, to numer­ous fes­ti­vals and cel­e­bra­tions that take place in city squares. Accord­ing to sta­tis­tics, about 6 mil­lion tourists come here every year. In this arti­cle I will tell you about what attracts such a huge num­ber of peo­ple to the cap­i­tal of the Czech Repub­lic. So let’s start our tour of the most promi­nent sights of the city.

Prague Castle

Numer­ous tourists asso­ciate Prague with a his­tor­i­cal com­plex of build­ings in the city cen­ter. Due to its colos­sal size, Prague Cas­tle was placed in the Guin­ness Book of Records. The whole com­plex is includ­ed in the list of pro­tect­ed world her­itage sites of UNESCO. Prague Cas­tle includes palaces, cathe­drals, muse­ums and many oth­er objects. The Czech gov­ern­ment still holds its meet­ings here. Archae­o­log­i­cal exca­va­tions are under­way on the ter­ri­to­ry of the com­plex, thanks to which many inter­est­ing dis­cov­er­ies have been made. Pra­guers call this place a city with­in a city for a rea­son. Prague Cas­tle for Chekhov is asso­ci­at­ed with state­hood and is its key pil­lar.

Franz Kafka Museum

This land­mark of Prague will be of inter­est not only to admir­ers of Franz Kafka’s work, but also to ordi­nary tourists due to its unusu­al design and sculp­tures. The his­to­ry of the cre­ation of the Franz Kaf­ka Muse­um, which began with an exhi­bi­tion orga­nized in Barcelona, ​​is also inter­est­ing. She proved so pop­u­lar that she moved to New York and then returned to her per­ma­nent res­i­dence in Prague. A his­tor­i­cal build­ing was allo­cat­ed for the muse­um, where today an expo­si­tion about the life and work of the famous philoso­pher is shown. As soon as you get into the court­yard of the muse­um, then imme­di­ate­ly pay atten­tion to the unusu­al sculp­tur­al com­po­si­tion with piss­ing fig­ures. It becomes clear that vis­it­ing the muse­um will be inter­est­ing…

Tyn Cathedral

This majes­tic Goth­ic cathe­dral is locat­ed on the Old Town Square. Its his­to­ry dates back to the 14th cen­tu­ry, but it took almost two cen­turies to build. Not only the exte­ri­or of the Tyn Cathe­dral is inter­est­ing, but also what is inside. Under sev­er­al dozen altars, the remains of impor­tant per­son­al­i­ties in the his­to­ry of Prague are buried. You will be able to rec­og­nize this cathe­dral from afar by its 80 meter spiers, tow­er­ing above the rest of the build­ings in the city cen­ter. Do not miss the chance to vis­it this place with a guid­ed tour, which takes place at any time of the year.

Museum of Alchemy and Magic

Around Prague there is an atmos­phere of mys­ti­cism and mys­tery, so it is not sur­pris­ing that there is a muse­um of alchemists and magi­cians here. This is a very pop­u­lar place, which is unfair­ly ignored by some tourists. And even though the Alchemists Muse­um is not includ­ed in the list of mass land­marks, it will be very inter­est­ing for any­one who wants to get to know the atmos­phere of the Mid­dle Ages bet­ter. The archi­tec­tur­al struc­ture in which the muse­um is locat­ed is also note­wor­thy. This house is con­sid­ered one of the old­est in Prague, the first men­tion of which was back in the 900s. When vis­it­ing the sights of Prague, be sure to include this place in your plan.

Wenceslas Square in Prague

Wences­las Square is locat­ed in the new city and is the start­ing point for all excur­sions in Prague. This is not only a cul­tur­al, but also a polit­i­cal cen­ter, where impor­tant events often take place. Lux­u­ri­ous Prague hotels, famous restau­rants and shops, as well as offices of the world’s lead­ing com­pa­nies are con­cen­trat­ed here. At the most impor­tant point of the square, there is a sculp­ture of the patron saint of the Czech Repub­lic, Wences­las. Today, crowds of tourists roam here, but in the Mid­dle Ages, exe­cu­tions were often held on the square. How­ev­er, over time, this tra­di­tion has sunk into obliv­ion. On both sides, hous­es of wealthy mer­chants and promi­nent fig­ures of the Czech Repub­lic grew up.

Kampa Museum

Prague is not only old, but also mod­ern archi­tec­ture with art. Muse­um lovers will def­i­nite­ly like the Kam­pa Muse­um, which reflects the lat­est trends in Czech art. Here you will find a num­ber of extreme­ly unusu­al exhibits, includ­ing unusu­al fig­ures, struc­tures made of strange mate­ri­als and many oth­er things that are unlike­ly to be found in real life, not to men­tion the exhi­bi­tions of oth­er clas­si­cal muse­ums. Despite the mod­ern theme, the Kam­pa Muse­um retains the style of the Mid­dle Ages inher­ent in Prague.

The Charles Bridge

The most rec­og­niz­able land­mark of Prague is the medieval Charles Bridge over the Vlta­va Riv­er. The bridge con­nects the Old and New Towns, hav­ing received its name in hon­or of Emper­or Charles IV. Over the cen­turies, there have already been attempts to build sev­er­al struc­tures of a sim­i­lar plan, which were destroyed by floods. The emper­or decid­ed to rad­i­cal­ly influ­ence the sit­u­a­tion and ordered the con­struc­tion of a cap­i­tal Stone Bridge. So the Charles Bridge appeared, along which the emper­or could get to his cas­tle. Today it is one of the most vis­it­ed places in Prague where life is always in full swing. Also note­wor­thy are the sculp­tures along the bridge depict­ing Czech saints and states­men. On the Charles Bridge, musi­cians con­stant­ly per­form, paint­ings and sou­venirs are sold.

Dancing House of Prague

The Danc­ing House is anoth­er mod­ern land­mark of the Czech cap­i­tal, which has long caused mas­sive con­tro­ver­sy among local res­i­dents. The Pres­i­dent of the Czech Repub­lic Vaclav Hav­el insist­ed on the con­struc­tion of such a mod­ern build­ing, thanks to which the build­ing appeared. At first glance, it is dif­fi­cult to under­stand the intri­ca­cies of its forms and lines, but the archi­tec­t’s idea implied the image of a cou­ple of lovers merged in a pas­sion­ate dance. As often hap­pens, over time, this build­ing has merged into the archi­tec­tur­al appear­ance of Prague and no longer caus­es such rejec­tion among the Czechs. The Danc­ing House is includ­ed in the list of many city tours as a pop­u­lar archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ment of Prague.

Karlštejn Castle

Kar­lšte­jn is a pop­u­lar cas­tle around Prague. It is locat­ed three dozen kilo­me­ters from the city and is an impreg­nable defen­sive struc­ture, where impor­tant doc­u­ments were kept from ancient times, and the roy­al trea­sury was also locat­ed. Kar­lšte­jn Cas­tle was built for the Emper­or of the Roman Empire, Charles IV, who inde­pen­dent­ly man­aged the work and over­saw the process. Dur­ing a tour of Karl­ste­jn, you can immerse your­self in the world of the past, observ­ing the life of the rulers and their sacred arti­facts.

Petrin Hill

Petřín Hill is not only the high­est point in Prague, but also an impor­tant his­tor­i­cal place. Since ancient times, pagans have per­formed their rit­u­als here, bring­ing sac­ri­fices to their gods. Today this place is a pop­u­lar point on the map of Prague. Among the sights of the Hill, it is worth not­ing the tow­er vis­i­ble from afar, along with the obser­va­to­ry and gar­dens. Many also vis­it the famous mir­ror maze, try­ing to solve the puz­zle and find a way out. This is an attrac­tion for per­sis­tent tourists, as many can­not with­stand the com­plex inter­weav­ing of turns and expe­ri­ence strong fear.

Old Royal Palace

The Old Roy­al Palace was the res­i­dence of Czech kings in the 12th-16th cen­turies. But even before the con­struc­tion of the cas­tle, there were already oth­er build­ings on this site, which was repeat­ed­ly proved by researchers. A pow­er­ful fortress with defen­sive struc­tures appeared in order to pro­tect against ene­my attacks. Sub­se­quent­ly, recon­struc­tions and addi­tions were repeat­ed­ly car­ried out, which was reflect­ed in the build­ings of the Goth­ic style on the site of for­mer Roman hous­es.

Prague Zoo

The Prague Zoo is one of the most pop­u­lar and vis­it­ed in Europe. It was found­ed in the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry as the Zoo­log­i­cal Gar­den, but grad­u­al­ly increased in size and became a full-fledged zoo. Here you will find many enclo­sures with a vari­ety of species of ani­mals and birds. The Prague Zoo also has a rather unusu­al enclo­sure, where con­di­tions are almost iden­ti­cal to the jun­gle. What is even more inter­est­ing, vis­i­tors have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to enter there and immerse them­selves in the world of wildlife, hav­ing stud­ied every­thing thor­ough­ly. The zoo also breeds ani­mals, includ­ing many rare species that have vir­tu­al­ly dis­ap­peared from their nat­ur­al habi­tats. This Prague attrac­tion is very pop­u­lar as a des­ti­na­tion for fam­i­ly excur­sions. chil­dren are always inter­est­ed in close com­mu­ni­ca­tion with ani­mals and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the feath­ered world.

Troy Castle

Anoth­er palace in the vicin­i­ty of Prague — Tro­ja Cas­tle was built in the Baroque style and is sur­round­ed by mag­nif­i­cent well-groomed gar­dens. In its style, it is some­what rem­i­nis­cent of famil­iar Ital­ian palaces. Ini­tial­ly, the palace was owned by the famous Stern­berg fam­i­ly, but then changed hands sev­er­al times. Today, inside there is a Muse­um with an exhi­bi­tion of paint­ings by mas­ters of the 19th cen­tu­ry. Dur­ing the tour, you will be able to walk through the rooms and halls of the Troy Cas­tle, but the Impe­r­i­al Hall with fres­coes in hon­or of the exploits of the Hab­s­burg rulers deserves the clos­est atten­tion. When vis­it­ing the sights of Prague, it is some­times use­ful to devi­ate from tra­di­tion­al routes and explore sim­i­lar places.

Visegrad

Vysehrad is the most impor­tant fortress in the his­to­ry of the Czech Repub­lic, as well as the his­tor­i­cal cen­ter of Prague. Already in the tenth cen­tu­ry, an impreg­nable fortress was built on this ter­ri­to­ry, around which Prague grad­u­al­ly formed, get­ting upset block by block. Here you will find Prague’s unique archi­tec­tur­al land­marks, includ­ing the Roman rotun­da and the Peter and Paul Basil­i­ca. Many con­nois­seurs of Goth­ic archi­tec­ture also vis­it the Vysehrad ceme­tery, where tours of the dun­geon are held. Dur­ing this trip you will get a lot of thrills. From the obser­va­tion ter­race of vysehrad, a mag­nif­i­cent view of Prague and its archi­tec­tur­al ensem­ble opens up. There are so many places where you can sit and admire one of the most beau­ti­ful cities in the world. Pro­fes­sion­al guides advise you to go on a tour of Vygeshrad ear­ly in the morn­ing, when the streets are cov­ered with a haze of fog, and the crowds of tourists have not yet left their hotels.

St. Vitus Cathedral

A lot has already been said about this place on Life­Globe. St. Vitus Cathe­dral is the main cathe­dral of Prague and is locat­ed on the ter­ri­to­ry of the Prague Cas­tle. It is actu­al­ly ded­i­cat­ed to three saints at once: Vitus, Wences­las and St. Voytek. Already in the tenth cen­tu­ry, a small basil­i­ca was built on this ter­ri­to­ry, which was sub­se­quent­ly upset and expand­ed. The con­struc­tion of St. Vitus Cathe­dral took sev­er­al cen­turies and the final work was com­plet­ed only in 1929. Dur­ing the tour, do not miss the chance to climb the stairs to the high­est point of the cathe­dral, where you will be reward­ed with breath­tak­ing views of the city. Giv­en that this is one of the city’s most pop­u­lar mon­u­ments, get ready to stand in line in front of the cathe­dral gates.

Strahov Monastery in Prague

The Stra­hov Monastery is open to tourists as a muse­um, a library, and a reli­gious shrine. Every­one knows that this is one of the old­est monas­ter­ies in the Czech Repub­lic, built in the 12th cen­tu­ry. Stra­hov in Czech means “guard”, which is not sur­pris­ing, since it was the ter­ri­to­ry of the defen­sive Prague out­post. The monastery has been recon­struct­ed and rebuilt through­out its his­to­ry, thanks to which a num­ber of eras have been reflect­ed in its archi­tec­tur­al style. If you like reli­gious archi­tec­ture, then you must vis­it this place.

National Theater

The Nation­al The­ater of Prague has become a real sym­bol of the cul­tur­al renais­sance of the Czech Repub­lic. For many, it is a com­mem­o­ra­tion of the strug­gle against the Aus­tro-Hun­gar­i­an author­i­ties, which in every pos­si­ble way pre­vent­ed the for­ma­tion of the Czech peo­ple. Funds for the con­struc­tion of the the­ater were col­lect­ed through­out the coun­try, and the open­ing final­ly took place in 1871. This land­mark of Prague is locat­ed on the embank­ment of the Vlta­va Riv­er. You will be impressed not only by the façade, but also by the inte­ri­ors of the mag­nif­i­cent build­ing.

Old Town Square

The Old Town Square is in no way infe­ri­or to Wences­las Square in its sig­nif­i­cance. It is locat­ed in the heart of the old town of Prague, in the very his­tor­i­cal cen­ter. The square was found­ed in the 12th cen­tu­ry, mer­chants gath­ered here and it was always crowd­ed. Today, many mon­u­ments from dif­fer­ent peri­ods are con­cen­trat­ed around the Old Town Square, which are def­i­nite­ly worth explor­ing. Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est is the tow­er with the leg­endary Astro­nom­i­cal Clock, around which crowds of tourists gath­er.

National Museum in Prague

The Neo-Renais­sance build­ing of the Nation­al Muse­um in Prague was designed by the out­stand­ing archi­tect D. Schultz. This is a great place to vis­it if you want to learn more about the his­to­ry of the Czech Repub­lic. The expo­si­tion includes many col­lec­tions with his­tor­i­cal exhibits, as well as coins, medals, sculp­tures and weapons. The muse­um also hous­es a library with col­lec­tions of rare books. The main build­ing of the muse­um is a work of archi­tec­ture, and its facade is in no way infe­ri­or to medieval cas­tles and palaces.

Hradchany

Among the most famous tourist cor­ners of Prague, it is worth men­tion­ing the dis­trict of Hrad­cany in the west. Hrad­cany was found­ed to accom­mo­date the palace ser­vants, but the house­hold premis­es were destroyed by fire, and mag­nif­i­cent palaces and vil­las of wealthy Pra­guers appeared in their place. Over the cen­turies, Hrad­cany has become strong­ly asso­ci­at­ed with an elite res­i­dence. Many reli­gious build­ings appeared here, as well as the Old Town Hall along with oth­er sights of Prague.

Monument to the Victims of Communism

The Mon­u­ment to the Vic­tims of Com­mu­nism is one of the most mod­ern in Prague. It was cre­at­ed in 2002 by the archi­tect Zubek. Accord­ing to his idea, the mon­u­ment depicts the hard­ships of the life of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers dur­ing the peri­od of com­mu­nist rule in the Czech Repub­lic. The com­po­si­tion of the memo­r­i­al includes 7 sculp­tures descend­ing the stairs. Each of them has some kind of defect, which inten­si­fies as you descend.

Zizkov TV Tower

The Zizkov TV Tow­er is vis­i­ble far beyond Prague. This is a work­ing tele­vi­sion tow­er sev­er­al hun­dred meters high. Such an unusu­al sight caused a lot of con­tro­ver­sy among archi­tec­tur­al crit­ics. Some­one con­sid­ers it a mas­ter­piece of engi­neer­ing, while oth­ers call it ugli­ness on the body of a mag­nif­i­cent city. How­ev­er, it is a very pop­u­lar tourist des­ti­na­tion. Peo­ple come here for the obser­va­tion deck at a height of 93 meters, an excel­lent restau­rant with panoram­ic win­dows, as well as a hotel where you can book a room for a few days.

Powder Tower

Many lists of Prague land­marks unfair­ly miss the Pow­der Tow­er. This Goth­ic struc­ture once served as the main city gate, and in the eigh­teenth cen­tu­ry it housed a gun­pow­der store. Today, the gate serves as the entrance to the Old Town, and also hous­es a muse­um with a small exhi­bi­tion of pho­tographs and a view­ing ter­race. The facade of the tow­er is a clear evi­dence of the harsh archi­tec­ture of the Mid­dle Ages. Most tourists pass through the gate and do not linger at the tow­er, fol­low­ing to the heart of Old Prague. But I rec­om­mend that you explore the Pow­der Tow­er in more detail.

Golden Lane

The street-muse­um, unique with­in Europe, is locat­ed on the ter­ri­to­ry of the Prague Cas­tle. Here are small hous­es with fab­u­lous fig­ures. In the six­teenth cen­tu­ry, numer­ous jew­el­ers and chasers from the Czech trea­sury worked in the area, which is why the street got its name. It is not sur­pris­ing that there are many leg­ends around the Gold­en Lane. The most com­mon of these speaks of alchemists who could turn any oth­er mate­r­i­al into gold. Peo­ple lived here until the Sec­ond World War, after which the street became a muse­um and a pop­u­lar tourist attrac­tion in Prague.

Vinarna Devil

Con­tin­u­ing the theme of Prague streets, it is def­i­nite­ly worth men­tion­ing Vinar­na Cher­tov­ka. This is the nar­row­est street in Prague, where sev­er­al peo­ple are unlike­ly to dis­perse. Its width reach­es only 70 cen­time­ters. For this, a unique solu­tion was invent­ed — to put a spe­cial traf­fic light, which indi­cates the pos­si­bil­i­ty of pas­sage in one direc­tion or anoth­er. You prob­a­bly have a ques­tion, where did the name of the street come from? Quite sim­ply, Vinar­na Cher­tov­ka was named after a near­by win­ery.

Jewish Quarter

Prague’s Jew­ish Quar­ter has a num­ber of unique sights, includ­ing the old Jew­ish ceme­tery. The his­to­ry of this place, based on the site of the Jew­ish ghet­to of the 11th cen­tu­ry, is also inter­est­ing. Now it is an elite res­i­dence in the city cen­ter, although once the poor­est seg­ments of the pop­u­la­tion lived in a dense­ly pop­u­lat­ed area. Dur­ing the tour of the Jew­ish Quar­ter, the guide will cer­tain­ly tell you the leg­end of the Golem — one of the most pop­u­lar Prague sto­ries for tourists.

I hope you enjoyed this vir­tu­al tour of Prague. Each of these places has a sep­a­rate sto­ry on the pages of Life­Globe, which will help you plan your trip and vis­it inter­est­ing land­marks in Prague.