Top 5 places to visit in Prague

Ahoj! I’ll jump start this blog from my very own city, Prague called locally as Praha located at the heart of Europe.

Here is the list of nice and interesting places in Prague that I would recommend to anyone visiting our capital city.

1. St. Vitus Cathedral

The largest and most visible part of the Prague’s castle, a gothic cathedral founded in 1344 and fully finished almost 600 years later in 1929. The first master builder was Mathias of Arras, after his death Peter Parler continued his works with the help of many other builders, sculptors and painters.

2. Charles Bridge

One of the oldest bridges in Europe built by the order of the Emperor Charles IV. to replace Judith’s bridge destroyed by floods couple of years ago. The construction started in 1351 and wasn’t finished till early years of 15th century. During the more than 700 years of existence it has witnessed a lot, was repeatedly damaged by floods and even suffered battle damage in 1648 just before the end of Thirty Years war.

The most disastrous year for the bridge was 1890 when huge flood torn down three pillars, two more collapsed later because of the enourmous amount of water, logs and other debris floating in the Vltava river. The bridge was repaired and reopened in two years and stands until today.

In the 2002 floods the bridge was only lightly damaged, however previous repairs that took place in the 60′s and 70′s of the 20th century were not complete – two of the pillars haven’t been touched since 1890 – so there is reconstruction going on to better protect the bridge from powers of nature.

3. National Museum

Another great building overseeing the most famous and popular square in Prague (Wenceslas square), the two violently separated by north-south highway during the communist era. There are projects and plans on changing this mistake and reuniting the museum and square again. It houses millions of items not only from Czech history but other places as well, from stones, bones, stuffed animals, plants, paintings, numismatics to music. The museum was founded in 1818. During its short life it also took lot of damage – in 1945 by a bomb, 1968 by ‘friendly’ machine gunfire from Soviet Red Army coming to ‘save’ the socialism, during the construction of subway in early 70′s. And to this day it also suffers from noise, dust and vibrations from the very heavy traffic on the highway.

Tip – first monday of every month has no entrance fee!

4. TV Tower (Space ship)

The tallest building in Prague with magnificent view of the city and surroundings. On very clear days it is possible to see hundreds of kilometers far, the mountains on the northern border of Czech republic. During its construction in 1980′s it caused lot of controversy and was rejected by the majority of citizens. However during the years it became part of Prague’s panorama and now is one of the main attractions.

5. Pubs

Prague, also called the ‘city of hundreds of towers’, is also known for many different restaurants and pubs. Some offer great service, some delicious meals and drinks, some have exotic interiors, some with great outlook and some have ridiculous prices. Everybody must be able to find one that just fits to his likes.