Prague History Walking Tour of Old Town, New Town and The Jewish Quarter
Prague, Czech Republic
Trip Type: Walking Tours
Duration: 3 hours
This 3-hour guided walking tour in Prague familiarizes participants with Prague's 1,000 years of European history. Learn about the city from the Middle Ages and Renaissance through the ordeals and triumphs of its modern history.
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This 3-hour guided walking tour in Prague familiarizes participants with Prague's 1,000 years of European history. Learn about the city from the Middle Ages and Renaissance through the ordeals and triumphs of its modern history.This 3-hour walk introduces participants to key monuments and familiarizes them with Prague’s 1,000 years of European history.
Start in Old Town Square, the ancient marketplace that established Prague as an important center for medieval trade. Learn about the soaring late Gothic towers of Tyn Church and Old Town Hall, which triumphantly exhibit the economic and cultural power that Prague achieved during its centuries of Bohemian self-rule. The monument to religious reformer Jan Hus in the center of Old Square stands as symbol of Czech national identity and resistance to foreign domination.
Walk through the winding streets of Old Town and see the monuments and buildings that reveal the social and political complexities of Prague’s multicultural past. Discover the impact that Czech intellectuals had on their nation’s political fortunes at Charles University’s oldest remaining structure, a lovely Gothic oriel window from 1370 -- beginning with Charles IV, the French-educated Holy Roman Emperor who founded the university in 1348 to make his capital city a center of learning.
Learn about Prague’s 20th century ordeals at Wenceslaus Square, where the Nazis held mass rallies and which also was the point of convergence for the Warsaw Pact tanks that crushed the Prague Spring of 1968. Hear about the Municipal House next, the greatest of the city’s many Art Nouveau masterpieces, which will send you back to the 20th century’s most optimistic moments for Czech independence. Built in 1911, the Municipal House flamboyantly proclaimed that Czechs were thoroughly modern people, ready to join Europe. It was from this hall that T.G. Masaryk announced the post-WWI creation of the first Czechoslovak Republic.
Finally, walk through the Jewish Quarter and see the oldest functioning temple in Europe, the Old New Synagogue. Learn also about the ancient Jewish cemetery and the rococo Jewish Town Hall as well as the cultural and economic interactions of Prague’s venerable Jewish community with its German and Czech neighbors. This walking tour will end at the Vltava River with a great view of Prague Castle and a summary of the Czech political system as it is still emerging, 20+ years into the country’s post-Soviet revival as a modern democracy.
Start in Old Town Square, the ancient marketplace that established Prague as an important center for medieval trade. Learn about the soaring late Gothic towers of Tyn Church and Old Town Hall, which triumphantly exhibit the economic and cultural power that Prague achieved during its centuries of Bohemian self-rule. The monument to religious reformer Jan Hus in the center of Old Square stands as symbol of Czech national identity and resistance to foreign domination.
Walk through the winding streets of Old Town and see the monuments and buildings that reveal the social and political complexities of Prague’s multicultural past. Discover the impact that Czech intellectuals had on their nation’s political fortunes at Charles University’s oldest remaining structure, a lovely Gothic oriel window from 1370 -- beginning with Charles IV, the French-educated Holy Roman Emperor who founded the university in 1348 to make his capital city a center of learning.
Learn about Prague’s 20th century ordeals at Wenceslaus Square, where the Nazis held mass rallies and which also was the point of convergence for the Warsaw Pact tanks that crushed the Prague Spring of 1968. Hear about the Municipal House next, the greatest of the city’s many Art Nouveau masterpieces, which will send you back to the 20th century’s most optimistic moments for Czech independence. Built in 1911, the Municipal House flamboyantly proclaimed that Czechs were thoroughly modern people, ready to join Europe. It was from this hall that T.G. Masaryk announced the post-WWI creation of the first Czechoslovak Republic.
Finally, walk through the Jewish Quarter and see the oldest functioning temple in Europe, the Old New Synagogue. Learn also about the ancient Jewish cemetery and the rococo Jewish Town Hall as well as the cultural and economic interactions of Prague’s venerable Jewish community with its German and Czech neighbors. This walking tour will end at the Vltava River with a great view of Prague Castle and a summary of the Czech political system as it is still emerging, 20+ years into the country’s post-Soviet revival as a modern democracy.
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