The Jetpacker

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.