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Still Bohemian After All These Years

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by Duncan J.D. Smith
 · website ·
 

Straddling the banks of the Baltic-bound Vltava, Prague is compact, storied, and achingly beautiful. Despite dropping its guard to the perils of mass market tourism in the wake of 1989’s Velvet Revolution, it is still surprisingly easy to escape the year-round crowds and discover the city off the beaten track. Just dive into the back streets, and let the city’s Bohemian reputation captivate you.

. . . . .

Legendary travel writer Bruce Chatwin dubbed Prague “one of the most curious places in the world” and it’s a description of the Czech capital I can endorse. The iconic skyline says it all really, for the ‘golden city of a hundred spires’ (there are in reality nearer a thousand) was created by a roll call of colourful characters straight out of Harry Potter, from evil emperors and firebrand clerics to royal alchemists and obsessive astronomers. The city’s later brush with Surrealism, Cubism, Fascism and Communism has only added to this heady historical brew.

Although today Prague’s suburbs extend deep into the surprisingly rugged Bohemian countryside, most visitors will find quite enough to detain them along the cobbled alleyways of the city’s Castle District (Hradčany) and Lesser Quarter (Malá Strana) on the west bank, as well as in the streets and boulevards of Old Town (Staré Město), the Jewish Quarter (Josefov), and New Town (Nové Město) on the east.

Saints and Sinners

Prague’s two great architectural icons are undoubtedly Charles Bridge (Karlův most) and Prague Castle (Pražský hrad) – and no visit would be complete without seeing them. The problem is that everyone else knows this too. You can join the throng in front of the statue of Saint John Nepomuk, the first of many Baroque sculptures to be erected on the sixteen-arched medieval bridge, which incidentally celebrates its 650th anniversary in 2007 (its resilience allegedly the result of mortar mixed with egg yolks!) The statues were intended to encourage passing Praguers to pause and pray although you won’t see much of this today since the bridge is now one of the city’s busiest pedestrian thoroughfares. Offering sublime views of the city in all directions it has inevitably attracted resident artists and street entertainers, adding to the boisterous atmosphere.

Soon enough you’ll be swept off the bridge westwards along bustling Mostecká and into Malostranské náměstí, a broad square in Malá Strana. From here, in a slightly less rumbustious manner, the crowd snakes up colourful Nerudova, once part of the ‘Royal Route’ along which the kings of Bohemia came to be crowned, to the gates of the castle itself. Using this popular approach can be exhilarating but for a change why not try Třziště, a relatively quiet street to the left of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas (Chrám sv. Mikuláše), which leads onto Břetislavova and Jánský Vršek? A little-used means of ascent it provides a more intimate, less commercialised glimpse of old Prague and its inhabitants.

Prague Castle is in reality a walled royal palace complex founded a thousand years ago, at the centre of which stands the venerable Cathedral of St. Vitus (Chrám sv. Víta), bristling with Gothic gargoyles and containing the Czech crown jewels. A full day’s ticket doesn’t come cheap but it does guarantee access to some stunning buildings, including the cavernous Vladislav Hall (Vladislavský sál) – the largest Gothic vaulted space in Central Europe – and the sturdy Basilica of St. George (Bazilika sv. Jiří), which predates the cathedral itself. Golden Lane (Zlatá ulička), a street of tiny artillerymen’s houses built against the ramparts, is interesting too, but now permanently overrun with sightseers. For me, a stroll around the castle precincts at night is the only real way to tap into the magic of the place – and it won’t cost you a penny.

Time to explore Malá Strana now, nestling in the lee of the castle and founded as a mercantile quarter in the 9th century. Mostecká dissects it, to the south of which is peaceful Kampa Island, a low-lying piece of ground created when a canal was cut to power medieval waterwheels. One of these still stands at the northern tip of the island and was once owned by the Knights of St. John, whose rebuilt monastery stands in nearby Grand Prior Square (Velkopřevorské náměstí). Along the monastery’s perimeter is the John Lennon Wall, a graffiti ‘free-for-all’ inaugurated by anti-Communists after the peaceloving Beatle’s death in 1980. You’ll usually find a handful of impressionable young travellers here either photographing or else adding to the colourful daubings.

The area north of Mostecká was transformed during the 17th century by Catholic aristocrats into a glittering Baroque district. Although the royal court and its nobles eventually relocated to Vienna their ornate palaces remain. Most magnificent of all is the former home of General Albrecht von Wallenstein, hidden behind a garden gate on Letenská. Strolling amongst the fountains and statuary is sure to make you feel aristocratic!

Josefov, Prague’s Jewish Quarter, can be reached by crossing the Mánesův most bridge back onto the east bank. The Jews came here in the 12th century, where they remained until the area was cleared in the 1890s. What remains today is a higgledy-piggledy cemetery at U Starého hřbitova 3, and a seemingly disconnected handful of synagogues, one of which, the Old-New Synagogue (Staronová synagoga) at Červená 2, is Europe’s oldest working example. Unfortunately, the area is now somewhat sanitised, its colour and character inevitably sucked out by the comings and goings of half a million annual sightseers.

Pařížská, a Parisian-style boulevard that will delight high-end shoppers, feeds directly from Josefov into Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí) – and yet another tourist hotspot. Once again you can follow the crowds, either eastwards along Celetná to the Gothic Powder Gate (Prašná brána) and Art Nouveau Municipal House (Obecní dům), or westwards along Karlova back to Charles Bridge. The real delights, however, are in the back streets, whether it be the dizzying astronomical tower at Mariánské náměstí 4, the subterranean art gallery at Husova 19-21, the unprepossessing birthplace of surrealist writer Franz Kafka at U Radnice 5, or the plain Bethlehem Chapel (Betlémská kaple) on Betlémské náměstí, where national hero Jan Hus railed against Catholic corruption during the 15th century.

Myths and Revolution

Emperor Charles IV, the ‘father of the nation’, laid out Nové Město in 1348 and its original grid plan, fanning out eastwards from Národní třída and Na příkopě, still exerts an influence on the city’s streets. A case in point is the old horse market, now occupied by non-stop Wenceslas Square (Václavské náměstí). Sights abound, from the Peterkův dům at number 12 (the city’s first brush with Art Nouveau architecture) to the flamboyant Grand Hotel Europa opposite at number 25, its Titanic restaurant a copy of the legendary White Star Liner’s tea salon. At the top of the square is the brooding National Museum (Národní muzeum) fronted by a statue of 10th century Duke Wenceslas I, the ‘good king’ recalled in the evergreen Christmas carol. It was here in January 1969 that student Jan Palach set himself alight in protest at the Soviet suppression of the Prague Spring, an abortive attempt by pro-reform Communists to democratise their country.

When the sheer volume of pedestrians becomes too much, and on Wenceslas Square it soon does, head off along the side streets. A stroll northwards along Jindřišská reveals several Prague peculiars, such as Maso Tomáš Turek at number 23, an intact pre-revolutionary butchers’ shop (řezník) offering cheap cuts to queueing locals. Just beyond is the Gothic-style Henry Tower (Jindřišská věž) on Senovážné náměstí (see below), and the glorious façade of the recently-renovated Jubilee Synagogue (Jubilejní synagoga) at Jeruzalémská 7. There is also the Main Station (Hlavní nádraží), now marooned on the wrong side of Wilsonova, a divisive carriageway driven through Nové Město during the Communist era. Scheduled for restoration the station’s elegant foyer is crowned by a stunning Art Nouveau rotunda containing a balcony café that affords a bird’s eye view of the travellers below.

Returning back along Opletalova brave Wenceslas Square once again and head south down Štepánská. A great way to navigate this part of Nové Město is by means of its maze of covered 1920s shopping passages (Pasáže). The pasáž Lucerna, for example, was a part of the city’s first concrete building, the Lucerna Palace. Its centrepiece is the still-glitzy first floor lobby bar of the Lucerna Cinema, where Kafka once watched silent films. The resident piano player will soon transport you back to a more genteel and romantic age. Another pasáž connects nearby Vodičkova and Jungmannova, and opens out quite unexpectedly into the Franciscan Gardens (Františkánská zahrada), an oasis of calm in the heart of the city and one of the few remaining medieval monastery gardens in Prague. This idyllic spot is also a favourite with footsore shoppers and office workers on their lunch breaks.

The southern reaches of Nové Město are perfect for idle wanderings, drinking in the delights of the U Fleků beer hall at Křemencova 11, and the well-stocked Globe Bookstore & Café at Pštrossova 6. After swotting up on defenestration – that uniquely Bohemian way of dealing with religious opponents – visit the New Town Hall (Novoměstská radnice) on Charles Square (Karlovo náměstí) where it was practiced, then jump on the southbound Metro C down to Vyšehrad. Never anything more than a fortified gateway into Prague, Czech legend insists that this rocky bluff was once the seat of Bohemia’s earliest rulers. Abandoned in the 1860s it was reinvented as a symbol of Czech cultural revival, its melancholy cemetery now filled to bursting with the city’s great and good.

Sit Back and Relax

Having explored central Prague by foot why not sit back and let Tram 22 take you a little farther afield? Traversing the entire city east to west it can be picked up outside the National Theatre (Národní divadlo) on Národní třída. On the way through Malá Strana it clatters past the Church of the Virgin Mary Victorious (Kostel Panny Marie Vitězné) on Karmelitská, where a tiny miracle-working effigy of Jesus has been attracting pilgrims for the last four centuries. A little later, after winding slowly up leafy Chotkova, it takes in the Belvedere, a curvaceous Renaissance summer palace commissioned by Emperor Ferdinand I as a love token for his wife, and then ascends even further to the Strahov Monastery (Strahovský klášter), with its pair of fascinating Baroque libraries. Hold on tight now as the tram navigates a fast downhill stretch westwards, the Břevnov Monastery (Benediktinské opatství Břevnov) – Bohemia’s first – flashing past on the righthand side, before grinding to a final halt alongside White Mountain (Bílá Hora). More of a chalk hillock it was here in November 1620 that Czech Protestants were vanquished by the Catholic armies of the Holy Roman Emperor.

Such tumultuous historical events may seem remote to us today but they have helped define modern Prague, from the patriotic symphonies of Dvořák and the Art Nouveau paintings of Alfons Mucha, to the fiery disposition of the Czech people themselves, all of which leaves a uniquely Bohemian impression on those fortunate enough to visit. Little wonder that the term is today synonymous with individuality.

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8 GREAT WAYS TO AVOID THE CROWDS

Magical Mystery Tour (Na Opyši)
Most visitors make for Prague Castle and they usually do so en masse along Nerudova. Very few use the Stag Moat (Jelení příkop), an unexpected ravine running along the north side of the castle from an unassuming doorway at the top of the Old Palace Steps (Staré zámecké schody). Pass beneath a trio of Gothic cannon towers, one of which was used by Emperor Rudolph II’s alchemists, and through an eerie pedestrian-cum-river tunnel, to eventually reach Nový Svět (or ‘New World’), a charming ensemble of ancient houses every inch as fascinating as Golden Lane – but without the queues.

Hidden Baroque Garden (Karmelitská 25)
The Vrtba Garden (Vrtbovská zahrada) is well concealed behind an inconspicuous gateway. This Baroque floral gem is a stunning example of Italianate aristocratic gardening, laid out ingeniously across the hillside in a series of terraces. A mere 3,100 square metres in size it seems much bigger and is crowned with a shell-encrusted gloriette. It is difficult to imagine that under Communism there was a children’s playground here!

Prague in Black and White (Újezd 30)
Tucked well away in the courtyard of this apartment building stands a simple wooden bungalow. Now a small museum and gallery, this modest structure was from 1927 until 1958 the studio of Josef Sudek, the father of Czech photography. Despite losing an arm during the Great War Sudek produced some of the finest panoramic images of any city anywhere.

Quiet Gothic Cloisters (U milosrdných 17)
Founded by the daughter of the first King of Bohemia, the Convent of St. Agnes (Klášter sv. Anežky České) is Prague’s first Gothic building. Thanks to an authentic restoration necessitated by the great flood of 2003 its plain and simple stonework demands contemplation, and provides a striking riposte to the city’s over-ornate Baroque churches. The surrounding streets are worth exploring too.

Old Town’s Literary Hideaway (Týnská 6)
One of Old Town’s best kept literary secrets is Týnská literární kavárna, a literary café and bookshop, where local writers and students congregate in a series of cosy arched rooms, as well as in a quiet courtyard in summer: it is easy to forget that the bustle of Old Town Square lies just beyond its walls.

Second World War Heroes (Resslova 9)
There is little to remind visitors of Prague’s brush with Nazism during the Second World War. Despite being abandoned by the Allies in 1938, Czechoslovakian resistance fighters were encouraged to assassinate Hitler’s probable successor, Reinhard Heydrich. This they did in 1942 seeking refuge afterwards in the crypt of the Orthodox Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius (Kostel sv. Cyrila a Metoděje). Betrayed by one of their own they were soon surrounded and chose suicide. The bullet-strafed building, with its partially-excavated escape tunnel, is today a poignant memorial to their heroism.

The World’s Largest Horse (U památníku)
The working class district of Žižkov just outside New Town has more bars per head of population than anywhere else in the world. It is also where in 1420 a charismatic, one-eyed Hussite general famously saw off a superior Catholic force on behalf of Protestant Bohemia. Reinvented under Communism as an anti-western hero an oversized statue of the general was erected on Vitkov Hill in 1950. It remains the largest equestrian statue in the world. Like the general’s legend the adjacent National Monument was also commandeered by the Communists. Their first Czech president, Clement Gottwald, could be found embalmed here Lenin-style until 1990.

Down in the Sewers (Papírenská 6)
It might not sound like fun but a trip to the Eco-Technical Museum (Ekotechnické muzeum) can be surprisingly exciting. Installed inside an abandoned wastewater treatment plant, designed by an Englishman a century ago, its chief attraction is a descent into the labyrinth of brick-vaulted tunnels below. You may not wish to be reminded that until 1967 this is where all of Prague’s sewage ended up.

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8 UNUSUAL PLACES TO EAT AND DRINK

Palffy Palác (Valdštejnská 14)
Hidden away on the first floor of an aristocrat’s palace this is Prague at its most romantic. Book a candlelit corner in one of the high-ceilinged chambers or else take to the summer terrace with its glorious views of the recently restored Baroque Palace Gardens. You will eat like a king too, from a menu featuring the likes of carpaccio of ostrich sirloin and creamy cinnamon risotto.

U Rozvařilů (Na Poříčí 26)
Meaning literally ‘overcooked’ this is a perfect example of a pre-revolutionary Automat, a fast food canteen serving cheap and cheerful Czech standards. Favourites include hearty onion and potato soups (polévka), goulash (guláš), dumplings (knedlíky), fried cheese (smažený sýr), and open-faced sandwiches of meat, smoked fish, and cream cheese (chlebíčky). Defiantly Czech service from the white-aproned staff completes the experience.

Peklo (Strahovské nádvoří 1)
Occupying the 12th century rock-cut wine cellars of the Strahov Monastery (Strahovský klášter) this subterranean restaurant offers Czech dishes and, not surpisingly, an extensive selection of Czech wines. The unusual setting is heavenly despite its name meaning ‘hell’, in deference to the so-called Paradise Gardens above.

Au Gourmand (Dlouhá 10)
This enticing French bakery offers a welcome respite from the usual, calorie-laden Czech pastries and occupies a former butcher’s shop, hence the pig’s head tiling on the walls. Freshly baked quiches, pissaladières, and baguettes are definitely de rigueur here, and there’s a delicatessen too, selling pâtés, preserved fruits, and Champagne.

Zvonice (Senovážné náměstí)
Dining rarely gets more unusual than here in the upper storeys of Henry Tower (Jindřišská věž), central Europe’s tallest freestanding Gothic belfry. Customers share the restaurant with giant timber roof trusses and an impressive 16th century bell. The views from the top of the tower are magnificent.

Kavárna Slavia (Smetanovo nábřeží 2)
It may not attract many dissidents and artists any more but this Grande Dame coffeehouse opposite the National Theatre (Národní divadlo) is still a must. The composer Bedřich Smetana lived above, where he composed The Bartered Bride. More recently former President Václav Havel came here to plot the downfall of Communism. Over coffee and a Prague Ham sandwich consider Viktor Oliva’s beguiling painting The Absinth Drunkard, a warning to those tempted by the notorious 70° proof Bohemian tipple.

U Černého vola (Loretánské náměstí 1)
‘At the Black Ox’ is a tiny traditional beer hall that has the feel of having been around forever. Opened after the Second World War both staff and punters have held out against the not inconsiderable powers that have commercialised so much of the surrounding area since 1989. This is in part down to a civic organisation, which donates money to a nearby music academy for the blind in return for the town council agreeing not to privatise the Black Ox. And, yes, the beer is great too.

Grand Café Orient (Ovocný trh 19)
This elegant and recently restored café occupies the first floor of the House of the Black Madonna, a Cubist masterpiece by Czech architect Josef Gočár. Everything from the staircase to the brass chandeliers are executed in characteristically angular style, and that goes for the charming balcony too. Built originally as a department store, the building now contains a fascinating Museum of Cubism together with the Cubist-themed giftshop Kubista.

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© Duncan J D Smith 2007 - worldwide rights reserved
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This article was written for and published in
Summit Magazine (Preferred Hotel Group), 2007