Prague’s New Town Self-Guided Tour: Revolution on a Shopping Street

Prague's New Town never got UNESCO protection, yet its passageways and cafés tell the story of a city that modernized faster than Paris or London ever did. On this walking tour, you'll see how Art Nouveau architecture and grand cafés transformed a medieval horse market into a hub of culture and revolution.

The tour starts at the bottom of Wenceslas Square, beside the New Yorker building, and heads up past the Art Nouveau Hotel Evropa and the Bata building, once home to the famous shoe company. You'll duck through the Lucerna passageway, designed by Václav Havel's grandfather, and wander the Franciscan Garden before reaching the Café Louvre, once frequented by Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka. Along the way, you'll hear about the Velvet Revolution and the Nazi occupation that both played out on these streets.

You'll pass the Church of Our Lady of Snows, a fragment of a planned cathedral left unfinished after Hussite plundering, and the cube-shaped New Stage of the National Theatre, clad in convex glass. The tour ends on the Legion Bridge, with the Vltava River stretching toward Prague Castle and Charles Bridge in the distance.

On this 120-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Step into the Palác Koruna, Prague's first fast food restaurant and a geometric Art Nouveau landmark
• Visit the Svetozor passageway, home to an independent cinema and a quirky sock shop
• See the upside-down horse statue by controversial artist David Černý inside the Lucerna passageway
• Learn how Josef Jungmann helped reinvent the Czech language during the national revival
• Hear how students offered flowers to police during the 1989 Velvet Revolution on National Avenue
• Explore the neo-renaissance Academy of Sciences, built on foundations using rediscovered Roman concrete
• Stand before the original National Theatre, Prague's first, designed when its architect was just 33

By the time you reach the Legion Bridge, you'll understand exactly how this overlooked district shaped modern Prague's architecture and identity.