Where to Stay in Prague, Hlavní město Praha

What is Prague known for?

Prague is known above all for Prague Castle, the fortified hill above the Vltava that has crowned the city since the ninth century. Its winding lanes and stone bridges carry the memory of Bohemia's old capital. The Old Town Hall keeps its astronomical face over the square, the twin towers of the Church of Our Lady before Týn spike the skyline, and the Strahov Monastery guards its libraries on the western heights.

Writers claim it too. The Franz Kafka Museum keeps the memory of the author who set his fiction in these streets.

What are the main landmarks in Prague?

Prague Castle anchors the landmarks of Prague, its ramparts holding St. George's Basilica above the Vltava. The castle crowns the city. Across the river the Old Town Hall shows its astronomical face to the square, the Church of Our Lady before Týn lifts its dark twin towers behind it, and the Powder Tower marks the gate where the old coronation route began.

On the western heights the Strahov Monastery, the Loreta pilgrimage complex, and the Petřín Lookout Tower stand above the roofs, while the Žižkov Television Tower rises over the eastern quarters.

What is the history of Prague?

Prague grew from a castle founded above the Vltava around the ninth century, the fortified seat from which the dukes and kings of Bohemia ruled. The hill came first. Prague Castle set the pattern for a town that spread down to the river and across it, gathering merchants, churches, and a bridge that tied the two banks into one settlement, and by the medieval centuries it had become the capital of a Bohemian kingdom that reached far beyond its walls.

Stone and faith shaped the growing town. The Old Town Hall rose beside its market square, the Church of Our Lady before Týn lifted its towers over the merchants' houses, and the Strahov Monastery gathered its libraries on the western heights while pilgrims climbed to the Loreta. The city kept its rank through empire and republic alike, the seat of Bohemia becoming the capital of the Czech Republic.

Later memory settled here too. The Memorial to the Victims of Communism records the harder decades of the last century on the slope below Petřín, a marker set among the older stones of Prague.

Where is Prague?

Prague sits on the Vltava, the river winding north through a basin of low hills in the heart of Bohemia. The water divides the city. On the eastern bank the Old Town and its squares spread from the river, while the western slopes carry Prague Castle and the terraced heights of Petřín above the roofs.

The Vltava's meanders and the ring of wooded hills around them frame a capital set inland at the centre of the Czech Republic, far from any coast.

What is the climate of Prague?

Prague has a temperate inland climate shaped by its position in the Bohemian basin, well away from any moderating sea. The winters run cold in Prague. Snow and frost settle over the Vltava and the castle heights through the darker months, while the summers turn warm and green along the river terraces below Petřín.

Spring and autumn bring the changeable weather of central Bohemia, mild spells broken by grey rain over the spires of Prague.

How do you get to Prague?

Prague is reached by an international airport on its western edge and by the rail lines that converge on the capital from across the Czech Republic. Trains run to the centre. From the main station the tram and metro network threads under and over the Vltava to the Old Town and up toward Prague Castle, and the motorways that ring the city link it onward through Bohemia to the neighbouring countries beyond.