Old Town

What it is

Staré Město — the Old Town — is the medieval merchant city on the right bank of the Vltava, chartered in the thirteenth century and never straightened out since. The street plan is the original one: lanes that bend, squares that appear without warning, and the Royal Route threading through it all from the Powder Tower to Charles Bridge, the coronation path of the Bohemian kings.

It is the reason most people come to Prague, and it is also where most of Prague's tourism problems live.

What is here

Old Town Square, with the Astronomical Clock of 1410 on the Town Hall tower and the twin Gothic spires of the Týn Church behind it. The Klementinum, a former Jesuit complex the size of a small town, with its Baroque library hall. The Estates Theatre, where Mozart conducted the premiere of Don Giovanni in 1787. The Municipal House, the city's great Art Nouveau interior, next to the Powder Tower. Grand Café Orient, the world's only Cubist café, is on Celetná in the House of the Black Madonna.

What it is like

The most crowded place in Czechia, roughly ten in the morning to six in the evening. Karlova, the lane funnelling everyone to the bridge, is a corridor of souvenir shops and trdelník stands — a pastry that is sold as ancient Czech tradition and is nothing of the sort. The hourly clock show is brief and gets watched by hundreds; see it once, from the back of the crowd, and spend your time on the astronomical dial itself instead.

Then, before eight in the morning or after ten at night, the whole quarter reverts to something close to its engravings — and the beer institutions that survived it all, U Zlatého tygra (Bohumil Hrabal's pub, where Havel brought Bill Clinton in 1994), U Medvídků brewing since 1466, and Lokál Dlouhá with its tank Pilsner, still serve mostly Czechs.

Practical

Never touch the exchange offices here — the tourist-strip „0% commission" rates are a notorious scam. Pay by card, and if a terminal offers your home currency, always choose CZK.

Metro Staroměstská (line A) and Můstek (A/B) frame the quarter; everything inside is a walk. Staying here means waking up inside the postcard, at Prague's highest prices, with night noise around Dlouhá street's bar cluster — ask for a courtyard-facing room, and pack for cobbles.