I loved my time in Prague, but the only thing “dark” about it was the beer consumed at U Fleků.

A travel agency is changing that by creating tours that specifically spotlight the dark side of the Czech capital.

Corrupt Tour’s “Best of the Worst” trips take tourists to places tied to corruption and scandals that have plagued the country’s political life.

The Czech Republic, like other formerly communist countries, has undergone a profound economic and political transformation over the last two decades.

But government corruption still exists, and Corrupt Tours wants to bring attention to it.

One popular tour takes tourists around the lavish, closed-off estates of businessmen linked to big state orders.  Others center around City Hall and construction sites that have tied up millions of dollars of taxpayer money.

The popular tours are are offered in Czech, English and German, and are elling out a week in advance.

Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world.  Since the 9th century, it has been home to kings, emperors and presidents.  Now tourists can wander this fortified town and experience Czech history first hand.  Here’s what to see in Prague Castle…

Passing through the Castle Gates sets the tone for a trip back into the tumultuous past of the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia).  The gate displays statues of the Fighting Giants, with one man about to shank some guy prison style, the other man about to bludgeon some poor shmuck Sammy Sosa style.

Matthias Gateway, built in 1614, leads into the main courtyard where there’s a fountain and… well, that’s about it.  We did catch people surveying the top bank of windows in hopes that the President might be taking a coffee break to stare out the window.

The Picture Gallery of Prague Castle is a small museum that would display many more paintings had the Swedes not looted most of Rudolph II’s collection in 1648.

The most exciting site in Prague Castle is also its largest and most famous: St. Vitus Cathedral.  Not only is this the biggest and most well-regarded church in the country, it’s also one of the best examples of Gothic architecture in the world.  The bronze doors, twin spires, flying buttresses, intricate statuary, stained glass windows, soaring gargoyles, tall portals, the massive rose window, the mosaic of The Last Judgment above the Golden Portal — the exterior is remarkable.  It’s easy to grasp the immense scale of the cathedral when standing in the courtyard, looking at it tower over the castle walls.

The richly decorated interior features the colorful St. Wenceslas Chapel (unfortunately off-limits to the public, but you can look in from the doorway), the tomb of St. John of Nepomuk (the most famous saint of Czech origin), the Royal Crypt, St. Vitus’ remains, and an 18th century organ.  The Czech Crown Jewels are also kept in a vault in the cathedral, but they only go on display during special occasions.

Just outside the cathedral is a monolith dedicated to the memory of the victims of World War I.  This courtyard also provides entry to the Royal Palace and Vladislav Hall, which contains an extensive and exhausting museum dedicated to historical artifacts and essay-length writings about the history of the castle.

Across the way is St. George’s Basilica, a church that once competed with St. Vitus Cathedral.  Today it is part of the collection of the National Museum, hosting an exhibition of Bohemian Baroque artwork.

Golden Lane is a street worthy of the clichéd term “picturesque.”  It’s a small street lined with colorful shops and restaurants.  For centuries it was home to the lower-class citizens and craftsmen who lived in the castle complex.

On the far side of the castle is the Lobkowicz Palace, another part of the National Museum.  It displays historical Czech artifacts such as jewelry, sculptures and weapons.  Across the way is the second largest toy museum in the world.

Last stop is the frightening Dalibor Tower, a cold stone dungeon that continues to display torture devices.  The tower was named after the first person to be imprisoned here.  Dalibor was sentenced to death for harboring outlaws and was lowered into a dark cavern through a hole in the floor.  Legend has it he learned to play the violin while imprisoned, and citizens sympathetic to his plight came to listen to his music and threw food down the hole.

Just outside the Dalibor Tower is a great courtyard with a fantastic view of Prague.

Visiting the Prague Castle can easily take an entire day, especially if you see all the smaller sights like the Ludwig Wing (an assembly room for former governors), the Chamber of the Imperial Court, Old Diet (not a soda, rather an elaborate chamber for political and religious officials), Burgrave’s Palace (cultural exhibitions for children) and the Powder Tower (a former home to a famous bell maker, then laboratory for alchemists, then gunpowder storage facility and now an exhibit).  Just remember to wear comfortable shoes and prepare weeks beforehand on a Stairmaster for those steep, gravel paths.

Here’s the official site of the Prague Castle.

Central Prague is divided into five smaller towns with New Town being the largest and most spread out, but that shouldn’t be a deterrent.  There are some great sights in New Town, including a bullet-riddled church, the oldest microbrewery in Prague, and an unusual building that looks like it’s dancing.

Wenceslas Square is the dominant tourist spot in New Town.  Wenceslas Square is actually an avenue almost half a mile long, so the term square is misleading — it really should be called Wenceslas Rectangle.

The elegance of the square is somewhat diminished by the adult shops and shady characters that patrol the street at night, but the major attractions make up for it.

There’s the Hotel Europa, with a fantastically preserved Art Nouveau exterior, the Koruna Palace shopping center, the Lucerna Grand Hall shopping arcade and world famous Lucerna Cinema, a plaque dedicated to the victims of Communism, the St. Wenceslas Monument, and the most dominant feature, the National Museum (you can read about our visit here).  Just off the square is the opulent State Opera house.

The other major square in New Town is Charles Square.  It isn’t nearly as grand as Wenceslas, but it doesn’t have the same seediness either.  In the 14th century, Charles Square was a cattle market, and really it could function as the same thing today — the square is mainly home to grass perfect for grazing.  There are a few monuments scattered along the tree-lined paths and some benches for resting.  But it’s the sights around Charles Square that draw attention.

Most of the eastern end of Charles Square is monopolized by a former Jesuit College, now a teaching hospital.  This area is all about Baroque architecture.  Popular places include the Faust House, the Church of St. Ignatius, and the Church of St. John On The Rock.  If you haven’t realized yet, Prague loves its fantastically designed churches.  It’s kind of ironic, considering that these days more than half the country is atheist or agnostic.

A block outside of Charles Square is another popular attraction.  And guess what it is!  The Church of St. Cyril and St. Methodius is where members of the Czech Resistance hid during a Nazi siege in 1942.  German troops mounted an assault on the church to flush out the Resistance, and you can still see bullet holes in the walls.  The church now houses a small museum dedicated to skirmish between the Czech Resistance and the Nazis.

On the north end of Charles Square is New Town Hall, which hasn’t been a town hall for centuries (it’s a venue for social events and weddings).  New Town Hall has existed since the 14th century, but so many additions were made in the following centuries that the building is now an incongruent mixture of contradictory architectural styles.  That’s a nice way of saying it’s a mess.

A few blocks down from New Town Hall is U Fleků, an awesome microbrewery that only serves its own sweet dark beer (read about our intoxicating visit here).

A few blocks from that is the impressive National Theater, with its elaborate auditorium containing a massive chandelier and a red and gold curtain that depicts the origin of the theater.  The attached buildings that look like a glass Rubik’s Cube belong to the New Stage Auditorium and the avant-garde Laterna Magicka (read about our visit here).

In the hallway a few yards from the Laterna Magicka is a small plaque memorializing the student-led demonstration that ignited the Velvet Revolution and led to the overthrow of Communism in 1989.

We saved our favorite sight for last.  It goes by many names — The Rasin Embankment Building, the “Ginger And Fred” Building, the Drunk House — but its most commonly referred to as The Dancing Building.  The unorthodox modern design makes it seem like it was created by someone who has spent way too much time looking at Salvador Dali paintings while drinking, but there’s actually a romantic method to the madness.

The building is supposed to artistically portray a dance between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.  You’ve gotta use your imagination to picture this one:  the glass structure is Fred in a suit, leading the dance, and the white structure is Ginger, wearing a crown and a long, flowing dress.  On the top floor of this office building is an upscale French restaurant called Celeste.

Historically, the Czechs have spent more time perfecting the art of beer than the art of food.  There are literally more beer recipes than food recipes.  But the few Czech dishes that exist can be quite tasty.

The Czech Republic is limited by what I like to call “the cold weather diet”: soup, meat and potatoes.  That’s about it.  The food is dense and hearty and it gets the job done without much style.  Here’s a list of what to eat in the Czech Republic (it may be a small list, but everything tastes good after a few beers, right?):

Soup

You can’t go wrong with a cup of garlic soup.  Each restaurant and pub serves it differently — some with chunks of pork, some with croutons.  I had it almost everywhere and it was always delicious, especially on a cold day.  The great thing is, it’s cheap — about $1 a cup.

Other popular soups are potato, beef with liver dumpling, onion, goulash, and a carp soup that’s served around the holidays.

Meat

There’s really only one popular Czech dish: vepřo-knedlo-zelo, which is pork, dumplings and cabbage.  Sounds boring, right?  But there is some variety: dumplings can either be potato or bread, cabbage can either be sweet or sour, and pork can either be grilled, pan fried or slow-cooked brisket-style.

Almost every meal I ate in Prague — lunch or dinner — was vepřo-knedlo-zelo.  Surprisingly, I never got tired of it because every restaurant served their own unique version of the dish.

The only other common dish is svíčková, a slab of roast beef covered in a creamy sauce and topped with… get this… whipped cream and fruit compote.  The juxtaposition between the hot, savory meat with the cold, sweet whipped cream and fruit was… interesting.  It was hard to wrap my mind around eating a dinner item and a dessert item simultaneously.

Sausages and bratwursts, called klobásy, are common in pubs.

Potatoes

The most popular side dish is cmunda, which is basically a hash brown — a greasy, fried potato pancake spiced with garlic, salt and pepper.  Sometimes it’s topped with sweet cabbage or slow-cooked pork.

Other potato side dishes include boiled potatoes that are sliced and called dumplings, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, fried potato wedges and potato salad.

Dessert

Just about every European country serves some kind of crepe and the Czech Republic is no different.  Their version is called palačinky.

The most popular dessert is ovocné knedlíky, a fried dumpling filled with whole fruit like plums or apricots and topped with powdered sugar.

Other dessert options are medovník (a honey cake), jablečný závin (apple strudel) or zmrzlinový pohár (a typical ice cream sundae).

The Czech Republic cultivates some of the best hockey players in the world — the country won gold in the 1998 Olympics and bronze in 2006.  So as huge fans of the sport, we couldn’t wait to go to a hockey game in Prague.  We just didn’t expect it to be so… different.

Of the 14 teams in the Czech Extraliga — the top professional ice hockey league in the Czech Republic — two of the best teams are located in Prague: HC Sparta Praha and HC Slavia Praha.  Sparta won the league championship in ’06 and ’07 while Slavia won it all in ’08.  We wanted to check out both teams, but only Sparta was playing at home when we visited Prague.

Sparta plays at Tesla Arena, an old arena with a capacity of just over 10,000 (as opposed to Slavia’s recently-constructed 17,000-seat O2 arena).  And it just so happened that during our visit Sparta was playing a big game against a major rival: HC Pardubice (with only 14 teams in the league, isn’t every team a major rival?).

How The Hell Are We Going To Get Tickets?

The city of Prague is so English-friendly that we assumed it’d be a piece of cake to order tickets at the box office.  But Tesla Arena is located on the outskirts of the city where not many tourists frequent and English speakers are few and far between.  When we got in line, it finally hit us: “How the hell are we going to get tickets?”

There were tons of people waiting in line.  There were fans of the opposing team trying to cause a stir and cutting in line. And no one spoke English.  As we inched closer to the box office, we tried to come up with ways to communicate our ticket order.  Maybe signal the number 2.  Maybe plop down a large bill and see what we get.  We had no clue.

But just before we got to the window, Jackie asked a nice guy named Michal for help. Fortunately, he had just spent 6 months studying English in Australia.  What a relief.  We gave him money and he bought our tickets.

Michal was attending the game by himself and was eager to practice his English, so the three of us sat together.  He was a fantastic guide with a surprisingly firm command of the English language despite only learning it less than a year prior.  He was like our personal Czech hockey guide: he talked to us about the great players on the team, the rivalry between the two teams and what was going on during the game.  And we in turn told him about the NHL.

NHL Vs. Czech Extraliga

We’ve been to a lot of NHL games, including games at six different NHL venues across the U.S.  So we have a pretty good grasp on what makes a great hockey-going experience.  And while our experience at the Sparta game was certainly great, it was also very different from what we’re used to.

The Czech game isn’t as fast paced as the NHL and the goal celebrations aren’t as theatrical (check out video of Sparta scoring a goal here).  But the experience in the stands is vastly superior to the NHL.

Fans of the opposing team sit in a secluded section on one end of the ice and the hardcore fans of the home team sit on the other end.  And for the entire game, both fan bases compete for supremacy.  When Pardubice scored, the fans would chant and ridicule Sparta.  When Sparta scored, their fans would do it right back.

And for the entire game, drum lines from both teams wailed away, the rhythm getting faster as the momentum shifted, frenetic thumping when their team scored.  Each side had a designated fan with a bullhorn that would shout instructions to chant or dance or wave flags.

So even though the game on the ice wasn’t as fast as we were used to, the show in the stands amplified the speed and energy of the game.  It was exciting and entertaining; we couldn’t help but get wrapped up in the spirit of the competition.  I’d take this any day over an NHL game where fans remain quiet in their seat until things start to go their way.

Well, I’ll take everything besides what sounded like a small bomb that went off in the Sparta Praha fan zone.  Jackie and I were the only people startled by this, so perhaps it’s a regular thing to have small explosive devices detonate in the middle of a game.

A couple other things we loved about the game in Prague:

#1.)  Tickets are cheap!  The most expensive tickets for the best seats are less than $10.

#2.)  The players shake hands after every game.  We rarely see that display of sportsmanship in the NHL — only when a playoff series ends.

#3.)  There’s a strange ceremony at the end of the game where if Sparta wins, the team stays on the ice and the hardcore fan with the bullhorn tells ‘em what a good job they did.  Then the players dive across the ice to celebrate.

Luckily, we got to see this first hand — Sparta Praha won 5-1.

Check out Sparta’s home page here.

Prague’s Old Town Hall and Astronomical Clock is what draws so many tourists to the Old Town Square.  It’s an awe-inspiring work of prodigious craftsmanship, it’s wrapped in mystery and bloody legends, and it puts on a show once a day.

The beautifully designed Astronomical Clock counts three forms of time: the 24-hour day as we know it, the 24-hour Bohemian day that began at sundown (measured in Arabic numerals), and Babylonian time, which only recorded the 12 hours of visible daylight.

The clock is surrounded by interesting features: statues of Death and The Turk (a symbol of lust) on the right, statues of vanity and greed on the left.  Greed used to be depicted as a Jew with horns clutching a money bag, but the offensive features were removed after World War II.

Just below the clock is a painted calendar. Surrounding the Old Town coat of arms are the twelve zodiac signs that represent each month, and the outer ring marks all 365 days of the year.  When the clock chimes at noon, the two windows above the clock spring open and mechanical figures of the 12 Apostles parade around.

The oldest part of the clock, the mechanical clock and astronomical dial, traces its origins to 1410 when it was made by Mikuláš of Kadaň and Jan Šindel. The calendar and Gothic sculptures were added later. For a while it was believed that the Astronomical Clock was constructed in 1490 by clockmaster Jan Růže (also known as Hanuš).

As the legend goes, the Town Hall counselors were so pleased with Hanuš’ work, they didn’t want him to reproduce his fine work anywhere else, so they blinded him.  To get revenge, Hanus climbed into the tower one night and committed suicide by throwing himself into the clock mechanism, knocking the clock off kilter for over a century.

Once you’re done with the Astronomical Clock, you can pay a small fee to walk up the steep and narrow path to the top of Old Town Hall Tower for a spectacular view of Old Town.

A walk through Prague’s Old Town is like watching a good movie: it gets better and better the further you get into it.

First stop is the Municipal House, a paradigm of Art Nouveau architecture.  Usually artwork is inside the building; not at Municipal House.  The half-dome features a mosaic called “Homage to Prague,” accentuated by the opulent rust-green dome and flanked by sculptures on either side.  In 1918, the treaty to make Czechoslovakia an independent nation was signed here.  Today, Municipal House is famous for its Smetana Hall, home to the Prague Symphony.

The warm cream colors of Municipal House contrast with the dark, Gothic sight next door: Powder Gate.  Since 1475, back when Prague was a walled-in city, Powder Gate served as one of the only access points into the city (and it happens to look a lot like the Old Town Bridge Tower).  In the 17th century, the tower was used as a storehouse for gun powder, hence the name “Powder Tower.”

A short walk leads to the Church of St. James, which harbors two big sites: an opulent Baroque organ built in the 18th century, and… a 400-year-old severed arm.  Supposedly, the arm belonged to a thief that tried to steal jewels from the church.  Now the blackened arm dangles from a chain in a hallway as a morbid reminder not to break a commandment and steal.

An archway across from the church leads down Tyn Street into a fascinating courtyard that no guidebook told us about.  There were unique sculptures, interesting stores and buildings covered in ghostly religious imagery.

After passing through another archway, we’re suddenly in the historical center of Prague: Old Town Square.  It can feel a bit overwhelming with so much to see, especially with the Christmas Market congesting the square.  The square is home to many major sights, and it’s best to take it one by one.

The 14th century Gothic steeples of the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn create an ominous mood that’s washed away by the square’s many brightly-colored, richly-decorated buildings.  The large pink building with the Rococo stucco is the Kinsky Palace, home to part of the National Museum’s modern art collection.

The Ministry of Development building is a golden yellow structure with a fantastic half-dome mural and statues of late 19th century firefighters.  The angelic white Church of St. Nicholas (one of two famous churches of the same name in English, but in Czech it’s Kostel Sv. Mikulase) and the haunting Jan Hus monument (Hus was a religious reformer who refused to give up his beliefs and was burned at the stake in the 15th century) are two more important sights.

The real star, however, is the Old Town Hall and Astronomical Clock, which you can read about here.

Other great sites in Old Town include the neo-classical Estates Theater, where Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” premiered (there’s even a spooky statue of a cloaked figure commemorating the opera outside the theater), Clam-Gallas Palace (another of Prague’s beautifully designed theaters), the Klementinum (read about a concert we attended here) and Knights of the Cross Square, a small square just in front of the Old Town Bridge Tower.

There’s also the Smetana Museum, Naprstek Museum and Havel’s Market — a tourist trap street lined with stores selling overpriced souvenirs.

The Lesser Quarter is the best district in Prague to appreciate old world splendor.  The district has been relatively untouched for centuries, providing a great snapshot of historically authentic Prague.  In other words, expect lots of churches, palaces and parks.

The Churches of the Lesser Quarter

If there’s one thing Prague can’t seem to get enough of, it’s churches.  And like the other districts of Prague, the Lesser Quarter showcases another handful of churches that need to be seen (even if all the angelic imagery grows tiresome).

Church Of Our Lady Victorious is home to one of the most important statues in the Catholic world: the Holy Infant Jesus of Prague.  You know something’s important when it has its own website.  People come from all over the world to see this miracle-giving statue.

Church of St. Nicholas (Chrám sv. Mikuláše) is the most dominant and revered church in the Lesser Quarter.  This church is a fantastic example of the elaborate Baroque style of architecture, from the fresco in the 230-foot high dome ceiling to the copper statues adoring the high altar, to the golden cherubs lining the ornate pulpit to a magnificent organ that was played by Mozart in 1787.

The Palaces Of The Lesser Quarter

Megalomania is on display at the Wallenstein Palace and Garden.  Albrecht Wenzel von Wallenstein was a Commander-in-Chief during the 30 Years War in the 17th century who really let success go to his head.  After the war, he bought up 26 houses, 6 gardens and 2 other structures with plans to build a complex that would rival the Prague Castle.  It falls significantly short, but it’s still impressive.

Visitors can wander the Main Hall, the Mythological and Astronomical corridors and a massive garden with a fountain, grotto and aviary.  Today the building is home to the Senate of the Czech Republic.

The Nostitz Palace is an elegantly refined 17th century building that used to belong to a wealthy Prague family.  Today it’s home to the Dutch embassy and the Ministry of Culture.  Concerts take place here in the summer.

The 17th century Vrtba Palace is a magnificent palace that’s overshadowed by its even more magnificent garden.  This unique Baroque garden creeps up the slope of Petrin Hill for fantastic views of the city.  The garden, with its elegant staircases and flower beds and statues, is a UNESCO protected monument.

The Parks, Gardens And Squares Of The Lesser Quarter

Kampa Park takes up most of Kampa Island and it seems like they should change the name to “Dog Park.”  It’s like everyone who owns a dog in Prague takes their pet here.  I don’t know how people in Prague train their dogs, but these were some of the most quiet, obedient dogs we’ve ever encountered… not one was on a leash.  This peaceful park is also home to the Museum Kampa.

The Grand Priory Square is home to palaces such as the Grand Prior of the Knights of Malta and the Buquoy Palace, which is now the French embassy.  It’s also home to a very slow moving mill in the Devil’s Stream.  But this area is more famous for its graffiti.  The Lennon Wall has been an artistic playground for symbols and poems of love and peace since John Lennon’s death.

Maltese Square showcases centuries of architectural styles in a compact area.  Numerous palaces line the square, including the Nostitz Palace and the pink Rococo Turba Palace, home to the Japanese embassy.  In the center of the square is a statue of St. John The Baptist.

The Ledebour Garden is located at the base of a steep slope rising to Prague Castle.  The elegant garden features numerous staircases and terraces overlooking Renaissance-inspired garden designs.  Oddly enough, if there’s one thing the garden is lacking, it’s flowers.

Petřín Hill is a public park in the center of Prague that’s impossible to miss yet often overlooked.  The hill has something for both young and old alike: recreational trails, a lookout tower in the shape of the Eiffel Tower, and even a mirror maze.

We get winded walking up a flight of stairs, so our preferred method of getting to the top of the hill was from the funicular in the Lesser Quarter.

Next to the Újezd funicular station at the bottom of the hill is the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, a series of seven bronze people frozen on a flight of stairs.  The memorial serves as a symbolic reminder of how political prisoners were stripped of their humanity and freedom during the Communist reign between 1948 and 1989.

The Petřín funicular whisks up to 100 visitors at a time up the hill in a matter of minutes for only one metro ticket.  There’s a stop halfway up the hill that no one ever seems to get off at.  One of the enjoyable moments on the ride up is when the funicular cars go through the passing loop and everyone waves at the car traveling the opposite direction.

At the top of the hill, the most obvious sight is the Hunger Wall, which stretches from the base of the hill in the Lesser Quarter all the way to Prague Castle.  This 20-foot high defensive blockade was commissioned by Charles IV during the 1361 famine to provide work for Prague’s starving citizens.

Beyond the wall is the Petřín Tower, a 197-foot lookout tower that makes you wonder why they couldn’t just build it 3 feet higher to get a nice round 200-feet (oh, right, that metric system that everyone else uses besides America).  For about $3 you can climb to the top to witness one of the best views Prague (disabled people or lazy people pretending to be physically impaired can use an elevator).

Next to the tower is a mirror maze housed inside a castle that looks like a fun house at a fair.  I’m 6’4″ and always curious as to what it’s like to be a tiny person, so I got a kick out of looking at myself in the mirror that squeezes you into Oompa Loompa form.  The maze is a quick jaunt, but you’re rewarded at the end with a giant painting commemorating the battle between the people of Prague and the invading Swedes on Charles Bridge in 1648.  The mirror maze costs about $3, plus another $1 to take photos.

Petřín Hill is also home to the Štefánik Observatory.  For about $2 you can peer into the heavens from one of three telescopes if the sky is clear.

On the other side of the park, about half a mile away, is the Strahov Monastery.  There’s not much to do here, but it’s worth a visit and a small fee just to check out the monastery’s unbelievable collection of 100,000 philosophical texts that are housed in two giant and beautifully designed rooms: the Theological Hall and the Philosophical Library.

We were starving after our visit, but instead of working on the Hunger Wall to earn food, we followed signs up a hill adjacent to the monastery.  At first, we didn’t know if we were in the right place; there was only a white structure the size of a closet lodged in the hillside.  No name.  No markings.  No windows.  And certainly not large enough to be a restaurant.

After we saw someone exit, we went inside and followed a long, brick corridor to a dim cave illuminated by just a few candles and lights from the bar.  This restaurant wouldn’t work for a claustrophobic person or someone who fears vampires because this place has “The Descent” written all over it.  Fortunately, the restaurant was mainly monster-free (except for the lady at the bar who brought her massive, matted dog with her) and the food was tasty and inexpensive.

The Czech National Museum in Prague displays about 14 million objects from the fields of art, history, botany and everything in between.  There are departments dedicated to mineralogy, zoology, archeology and every other word you can think of that ends with “-ology” (besides the gross ones).  But the most attractive feature isn’t inside the museum… it’s the museum itself.

This grandiose neo-Renaissance building that dominates Wenceslas Square was completed in 1890 and has survived despite numerous bouts with danger.  When the Soviets invaded Prague in 1968, they confused the National Gallery for a government building and barraged it with bullets; you can still see some of the shell marks today.

The real architectural star is the grand staircase in the opulent main hall.  The skylight casts a soft glow over the cream-colored stairs, accentuating the marbled pillars and the dark busts on the top floor.

Another architectural marvel is the two-story Pantheon, which contains the busts of some of the most important figures in Czech history.  We’re no experts on Czech history (we’re barely experts on American history), so we had no clue who these people were, but that doesn’t take away from the Pantheon’s immense scope and beauty.  The elaborate ceiling features numerous frescoes and amazing stucco work.  And there’s a phenomenal view of Wenceslas Square from the second floor.

The museum’s vast collections seem impressive, but the informational cards are only in the Czech language.  And because we had no context, we wandered through the rooms quickly.  “Oh, look, bones.”  “Oh, look, a truck load of rocks.”  “Oh, look, a scary amount of stuffed and mounted animals.”  (The National Museum must have like 20 taxidermists employed full time.)  The most exciting thing was seeing the bones of a Wooly Mammoth.

When we visited, there was a temporary exhibition dedicated to Czech history (fortunately in English).  It contained everything from old military uniforms to traditional outfits to mock-ups of turn of the century classrooms and bars.  The most interesting feature was drawings for proposed designs of the Czech flag.

And since we’re hockey buffs, we reveled in the small exhibition dedicated to the origins and history of hockey in the Czech Republic, including a display of medals won in various World Championships and Olympics.

Here’s the official website.