Czech Republic · Hlavní město Praha · Prague
New Town, Prague — Area Guide & Where to Stay
New Town, or Nové Město, is the largest of Prague's historic quarters, laid out in 1348 to wrap around the Old Town on its southern and eastern sides. Its spine is Wenceslas Square, the former Horse Market, with the National Museum standing at its head. The district runs from the Vltava embankment inland to Charles Square, one of the largest medieval squares in Europe. Shops, theatres, and hotels crowd its long boulevards.
About New Town
Where to stay in New Town
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Most visitors who base themselves here do so for the central position: the Old Town is a short walk north, and trams and the metro fan out from Wenceslas Square. The northern end, around the square and the National Museum, is the busy, late-night part, thick with hotels, exchange booths, and clubs. Quieter rooms sit toward Charles Square and the streets near Emmaus Monastery, still within walking distance of the sights.
This is the district for a traveller who wants to sleep in the middle of Prague and reach everything on foot. Ask for a room off the boulevard.
About New Town
What are the main landmarks in New Town?
The National Museum closes the top of Wenceslas Square, its neo-Renaissance front the district's grandest façade. Its collections span natural history and antiquity. A few steps from the lower square stands the Church of Our Lady of the Snow, whose Gothic nave was meant to rise far higher than the fragment ever finished.
South toward the river, the twin concrete spires of Emmaus Monastery rise near the Vltava embankment. On Resslova Street, the Cyril and Methodius Cathedral holds the crypt where wartime resistance fighters made their final stand. The Powder Tower guards the seam with the Old Town.
What is the history of New Town?
Charles IV founded Nové Město in 1348, laying out a planned quarter that wrapped around the older town with three broad market squares. The scale was deliberate. The Horse Market grew into Wenceslas Square and the Cattle Market into Charles Square, both dwarfing the lanes of the Old Town.
In 1419, an uprising at the town hall on Charles Square set off the Hussite Wars. During the Second World War, the crypt of the Cyril and Methodius Cathedral saw the last stand of the men who killed Reinhard Heydrich, and Emmaus Monastery lost its towers to an air raid.
Where is New Town?
Nové Město forms a broad crescent around the Old Town, reaching from the Vltava in the west to the slopes below Vinohrady in the east. Its western edge follows the river embankment; to the north, the Powder Tower marks the old gate into the Old Town. Charles Square anchors the southern half, while Wenceslas Square cuts a long axis through the north.
Vyšehrad rises just beyond its southern limit.
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Updated July 2026