Jacy Meyer - Pocket Rough Guide Prague

This second edition published April 2014 by

Rough Guides Ltd

80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL

11, Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110017, India

A Penguin Random House Company

Penguin Books Ltd. 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL

Penguin Group (USA) 345 Hudson Street, NY 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Australia) 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

Penguin Group (NZ) 67 Apollo Drive, Mairangi Bay, Auckland 1310, New Zealand

Penguin Group (South Africa) Block D, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Gauteng, South Africa 2193

Rough Guides is represented in Canada by Tourmaline Editions Inc., 662 King Street West, Suite 304, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1M7

Rough Guides 2014

Maps Rough Guides

No part of this ebook may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.

The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all information in Pocket Rough Guide Prague, however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result of its information or advice.

ISBN: 9781409345886

This digital edition published 2014.
eISBN: 9781409372387

ROUGH GUIDES CREDITSUpdater: Jacy Meyer Text editors: Alice Park and Neil McQuillian Layout: Ankur Guha and Anita Singh Photography: Natascha Sturny, Dan Bannister and Eddie Gerald Cartography: Katie Bennett and Simonetta Giori Picture editors: Sarah Cummins and Marta Bescos Proofreader: Stewart Wild Production: Linda Dare Cover design: Nicole Newman, Chlo Roberts and Anita Singh

DIGITAL PRODUCTION TEAMSenior Digital Producer: Linda Zacharia Head of Digital Operations, Delhi: Manjari Hooda Sr. Editorial Manager: Lakshmi Rao Producer: Rahul Kumar Editors: Suruchi Kakkar, Patpreet Kaur Assistant Editor: Etika Kapil Sr. Software Engineer: Ravi Yadav Software Engineers: Rajesh Pandey, Paranpreet Singh Digital Assets Coordinator: Rakesh Kumar Assistant Graphic Designers: Rahul Rai, Rohit Rojal Operations Coordinator: Jalaj Bansal

Photo credits

All images Rough Guides except the following :

Alamy: Christopher Kett

Alamy: Eric Nathan

Alamy: Peter Erik Forsberg

Alamy: Profimedia.CZ a.s.

Alamy: Shaun Higson Colour

Alamy: Yadid Levy

Ambiente

Corbis: Robert Harding World Imagery

DOX

Dreamstime.com: Mirekdeml

Dreamstime.com: Singhsomendra

Dreamstime.com: Vitaly Titov & Maria Sidelnikova

Dynamo

GAPS photography: Arjan de Jager - iStock

Naprstek museum

Performance courtesy of Divadlo Archa

SuperStock: Peter Erik Forsberg

Zoo Praha: Tom Adamec

Front cover Malostransk metro station Photoshot: UPPA

Help us update

Weve gone to a lot of effort to ensure that the second edition of the Pocket Rough Guide Prague is accurate and up-to-date. However, things change places get discovered, opening hours are notoriously fickle, restaurants and rooms raise prices or lower standards. If you feel weve got it wrong or left something out, wed like to know, and if you can remember the address, the price, the hours, the phone number, so much the better.

Please send your comments with the subject line Pocket Rough Guide Prague Update to . Well credit all contributions and send a copy of the next edition (or any other Rough Guide if you prefer) for the very best emails.

Find more travel information, connect with fellow travellers and book your trip on www.roughguides.com

Introduction to Prague

With some six hundred years of architecture virtually untouched by natural disaster or war, few other European capitals look quite as beautiful as Prague. Straddling the winding River Vltava, with a steep wooded hill to one side, the city retains much of its medieval layout and its rich mantle of Baroque, Rococo and Art Nouveau buildings have successfully escaped the vanities and excesses of modern redevelopment.

Buildings on the Old Town Square

Physically, Prague may have weathered the twentieth century very well but it suffered in other ways. The city that produced the music of Dvok and Smetana, the literature of apek and Kafka and modernist architecture to rival Bauhaus, was forced to endure a brutal Nazi occupation. Prague had always been a multiethnic city, with a large Jewish and German-speaking population in the aftermath of the war, only the Czechs were left. Then for forty years, during the Communist period, the city lay hidden behind the Iron Curtain, seldom visited by Westerners. All that changed in the 1990s, and nowadays Prague is one of the most popular European city break destinations, with a highly developed tourist industry and a large expat population who, if nothing else, help to boost the citys nightlife.

Best place for a view over the city

Prague is a city of red rooftops and golden spires, of wooded hills and stupendous views. Every visitor who climbs the steps to the castle is rewarded with a fantastic view over the city, but if you want to escape the crowds, check out some of the capitals other lofty vantage points, such as .

View from Vyehrad

Prague is divided into two unequal halves by the river, which meanders through the heart of the capital and provides the city with one of its most enduring landmarks, the Charles Bridge. Built during the citys medieval golden age, this stone bridge, with its parade of Baroque statuary, still forms the chief link between the more central old town, or Star Msto, on the right bank, and Pragues hilltop castle on the left. The castle is a vast complex, which towers over the rest of the city and supplies the classic picture-postcard image of Prague. Spread across the slopes below the castle are the wonderful cobbled streets and secret walled gardens of Mal Strana, little changed in the two hundred years since Mozart walked them.