Editor’s note: Prague is a city unique. It has a well preserved medieval core, incredible food, and the best preserved Jewish quarter in all of Europe. For my personal takes on the city, you can find my guide here. But this is Sam’s version, and describes a whirlwind tour through some truly amazing locales. For more of Sam Spector’s incredible writing, click here to visit his index page.

There is a city in Europe that I always feel pure joy when I visit because it is my favorite city on the continent. It is a city with architectural gems, phenomenal Jewish history, a great nightlife, and where the beer is cheaper than water. That city is Prague, the capital of Czechia (formerly known as the Czech Republic). Like Budapest, Prague is a city that shows the meeting of Western and Eastern Europe, a city with a river flowing through it that faced a revolution to stare down communism and emerge from the Iron Curtain. While a lot of people compare Prague with Budapest and Vienna, to me, Prague wins this competition due to its walkability and its fantastic medieval old town. With so much to see and do in Prague, plan about three days just in the city. I am actually going to divide Prague into two separate articles, this one focusing on the east bank of the Vltava River, and another article focusing on the west bank, with the Charles Bridge and the Lesser Town.

Prague is a city that is centrally located in Europe. It is 3.5 hours from Berlin, Munich, and Vienna, and 5 hours from Krakow and Budapest, meaning that Prague is an easy add-on to other great destinations in central-eastern Europe. A real perk to much of this part of Europe is the fantastic beer, and Prague is no exception to this as a great beer city where beer is often cheaper than bottled water. To have a top-notch beer experience in this town, head to one of my favorite beer halls in Europe, U Fleku. Founded in 1499, U Fleku is one of the oldest beer halls in Europe with an old Czech façade and a highly decorated old European clock hanging above. Inside, there are eight halls to choose where to sit at long tables and benches, and a German-style beer garden for outdoor seating. In total, U Fleku can seat 1200 people at a time and serves up two of their homemade beers: a light lager and their much-loved dark lager. There is also a traditional Czech menu that you can order food from to go along with your lager. One of the reasons that Prague is famous for beer is that it is only an hour away from Pilsen, the Czech city where Pilsner beer originates.

Prague’s Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the highlight of the city, if not this part of Europe. The Old Town Square, where there are regular markets, horse carriage rides, and live music sits in the shadow of the stunning Gothic Church of Our Lady Before Tyn, which has served as the main church on this side of town since the 14th century. The church has two dark bell towers that are each 260 feet high, and each have eight spires on them. While many European churches blend together, this one stands apart and is memorable and easily recognizable.

The other notable tower in the Old Town Square is the Old Town Hall, which has remained the same in appearance since its completion in 1364. The top of the tower matches the medieval gothic look of the church. The most famous component of the Old Town Hall is the astronomical clock that dates to 1410 that is on it. There is an astronomical dial that shows the position of the moon and sun, medallions that show the months, statues of Catholic saints on either side of the clock, and a skeleton that represents death. On the hour, hordes gather to watch as there is a show of apostles and statues walking around the clock, while the skeleton points to the time. This clock has been maintained regularly, as legend has it that if it is neglected, the city will face peril. In the middle of the Old Town Square is a large monument dedicated to Jan Hus, known as the first Christian reformer, who was a precursor to Martin Luther and his Protestant Reformation, predating him by over a century. Jan Hus, for his “heresy,” was burned at the stake in 1415, a move that backfired on the Catholic Church as the act angered the Czechs who rioted and left Catholicism in droves.

Not far from the Old Town is the Jewish Quarter, called Josefov. It is evident when you have entered this district as it has its own flag of a red banner with a yellow Star of David and also its own town hall with a famous clock that has Hebrew letters rather than numbers. This area was formerly a ghetto with narrow streets, and has Jewish restaurants and numerous synagogues. Ironically, this part of town was preserved largely because of, not in spite of, Nazi policy. The Nazis assumed that they would be victorious in their efforts to eliminate all of European Jewry and wanted to maintain this quarter as an “exotic museum of an extinct people.” Likewise, hundreds of Torah scrolls from Czechoslovakia were saved by the Nazis for this purpose and were discovered after the war, and are now on loan to synagogues around the world. The whole quarter and its synagogues are considered one large museum. The most famous synagogue is the smallest one, the Altneu (Old-New) Shul. Dating back to 1270, it is the oldest active synagogue in Europe and has a Gothic twin-nave design that has a similar aesthetic to the Church of Our Lady before Tyn. This synagogue is also famous because it is the origin story of the Golem, the mythical monster that was created by Prague’s most acclaimed rabbi, Judah Loew ben Bezalel, and that supposedly is locked up in the attic to this day.

Rabbi Loew’s grave is in Prague’s Jewish cemetery, attached to the 16th century Baroque Klausen Synagogue. The cemetery has thousands of graves and crooked tombstones that date from the 15th to 18th centuries, and is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe. Related and nearby is the Ceremonial Hall of the Prague Jewish Burial Society, a beautiful Romanesque Revival building from the early 20th century. It has been turned into a museum that shows the holy work of the Chevra Kaddisha, the burial society, which prepared bodies for burial. Another touching synagogue in the quarter is the Pinchas Synagogue, also dating back to the 16th century, which has been turned into a memorial for the 77,000+ Jews of Prague who were killed in the Holocaust. Throughout the inside of the building are the names in tiny black and red letters of the victims of the Holocaust from Prague. While not as old, also check out the beautiful Spanish Synagogue, which was built in 1868 on the site of the Old Synagogue, which had been Prague’s oldest synagogue. The Spanish Synagogue has a statue in front of it of Prague’s most famous Jewish son, the philosopher Franz Kafka, which depicts Kafka riding on the shoulders of a headless, handless person. The Spanish Synagogue is built in a Moorish Revival style and is one of the more beautiful synagogues in Europe with incredible designs, patterns, and colors, and today serves as a museum. Though not in the Jewish Quarter, you are a short walk to Prague’s largest synagogue, the Jubilee Synagogue, also known as the Jerusalem Synagogue, which is still an active Orthodox synagogue. The pink, gold, and blue building with spires was built for the Golden Jubilee of Franz Josef I of Austria and is in the Moorish Revival and Art Nouveau style of architecture and is also well worth visiting. If Jewish history is your thing (and even if it is not) do a half day trip to Terezin Concentration Camp (read my separate article on this), which is well preserved, and in my opinion, one of the more unique and interesting Nazi Concentration Camps.

While on this side of the Vltava River, take a stroll as well through Wenceslas Square. This pedestrian area has museums and cultural and business centers. It was at this spot where the Velvet Revolution took place in 1989, where students revolted against communism. To this day, it remains a popular spot for protests and demonstrations. Along the riverfront, make sure to see Frank Gehry’s architectural masterpiece Dancing House, a building designed to look like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing, with the leaning structure held up by 99 pillars.

For the east bank of the Vltava River, I would definitely spend at least a full day. The Charles Bridge and the western bank also require a full day. While the western bank is fantastic, it reminds me of other European towns; however, the Jewish Quarter and the eastern bank is something truly unique and is what makes Prague the best city in Europe. Be sure to Czech it out!

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