Prague · self-guided walk

Josefov to Wenceslas Square

Through the Jewish Quarter's synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery, past Kafka's monument and the Estates Theatre where Don Giovanni premiered, to Wenceslas Square and the National Museum, scene of 1968, 1969 and 1989.

10 stops · 2.5 km · about 75 min

Distance and time are our curators' estimates for the whole walk, stops included.

The stops

The short version of each stop. In aiGuide, open Prague, choose “Josefov to Wenceslas Square” and tap Begin walking tour; then lock your phone, and each story starts as you reach the stop.

1. 1Rudolfinum

   Neo-Renaissance, 1876–1885

   

   Look up at the roofline of this grand riverside building: a row of statues of composers and artists stands along the balustrade. Inside is Dvořák Hall, where Antonín Dvořák himself conducted the first concert of the Czech Philharmonic in 1896. The square in front of you is named after the student Jan Palach.

   • Designed by Josef Zítek and Josef Schulz; opened in February 1885.
   • Dvořák conducted the Czech Philharmonic's first concert here on 4 January 1896.

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2. 2Pinkasova synagoga

   Late Gothic, 1535; Shoah memorial from 1960

   

   Step inside and you find every wall covered with names: nearly 80,000 Jewish men, women and children from Bohemia and Moravia murdered in the Shoah. Beside each name are a date of birth and a last known date, usually the day of deportation. Upstairs you can see drawings made by children in the Terezín ghetto.

   • Built in 1535 by Aaron Meshulam Horowitz as a family synagogue.
   • Walls bear nearly 80,000 names of Shoah victims from Bohemia and Moravia.

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3. 3Starý židovský hřbitov

   15th to 18th century

   

   Behind these walls the ground rises above the street, because it is a stack of graves. Jewish tradition forbids disturbing the dead, so when space ran out, new soil was laid over old burials, by some estimates up to ten layers deep. Look for animals carved on the stones: a lion for the name Loew, a goose for Gans.

   • Burials took place here from 1439 until 1787.
   • More than 12,000 gravestones stand in the cemetery.

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4. 4Klausová synagoga

   Early Baroque, 1694

   

   This long white building with tall arched windows is the Klausen Synagogue, the largest in the former ghetto. It replaced three small study houses, including a Talmud school linked to Rabbi Loew, lost in the fire of 1689. Next door, the neo-Romanesque Ceremonial Hall of the Jewish burial society dates from 1906 to 1908.

   • Completed in 1694 after the ghetto fire of 1689.
   • The largest synagogue of the former Prague ghetto.

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5. 5Staronová synagoga

   Early Gothic, late 13th century

   

   You are standing beside Europe's oldest active synagogue, still used for prayer more than 750 years after it was built. Look up at the tall stepped gable of dark brick, added in the late Middle Ages. Legend says that Rabbi Loew's clay Golem still lies in the attic, which has no public entrance.

   • Built in the last third of the 13th century.
   • Europe's oldest synagogue still used for regular worship.

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6. 6Španělská synagoga

   Moorish Revival, 1868

   

   You are looking at the Spanish Synagogue, though no Sephardic congregation ever prayed here. The name comes from its Moorish Revival style, inspired by the Alhambra in Granada. Notice the small green domes on the corner turrets and the patterned parapet; inside, nearly every surface glows with gilded and painted arabesques.

   • Built in 1868 to designs by Vojtěch Ignác Ullmann and Josef Niklas.
   • Moorish interior designed in 1882–1883 by Antonín Baum and Bedřich Münzberger.

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7. 7Pomník Franze Kafky

   Contemporary, 2003

   

   Look closely at this strange bronze: a small figure of Franz Kafka sits on the shoulders of a giant empty suit with no head and no hands. The sculptor Jaroslav Róna took the image from Kafka's early story Description of a Struggle, in which the narrator climbs onto his companion's shoulders and rides him.

   • Created by sculptor Jaroslav Róna; unveiled in December 2003.
   • Bronze, 3.75 metres tall, weighing about 800 kilograms.

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8. 8Stavovské divadlo

   Neoclassicism, 1781 to 1783

   

   Find the Latin motto above the portal, Patriae et Musis, to the homeland and the Muses. On 29 October 1787 Mozart led the first night of Don Giovanni in this pale green and white theatre, conducting from the keyboard. Two centuries later Miloš Forman filmed the opera scenes of Amadeus inside.

   • Built from 1781 to 1783 by Anton Haffenecker for Count Nostitz-Rieneck.
   • Mozart conducted the premiere of Don Giovanni here on 29 October 1787.

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9. 9Václavské náměstí

   Gothic foundation, 1348; twentieth-century national history

   

   You are standing where modern Czech history keeps happening. Uphill, Saint Wenceslas rides in bronze in front of the National Museum; Praguers still arrange to meet under his horse's tail. Find number 36, the Melantrich building, next to the richly decorated Wiehl House: from its balcony Václav Havel addressed the crowds in November 1989.

   • Founded as the Horse Market of Charles IV's New Town in 1348.
   • About 750 metres long and roughly 60 metres wide.

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10. 10Národní muzeum

    Czech National Revival, 1885 to 1891

    

    You are looking at the palace the Czech nation built for its collections, opened in 1891. Look along the columns of the front: paler patches of sandstone fill the holes left by Soviet machine-gun fire in August 1968. Between the windows, 72 names from Czech history are lettered in gold.

    • Built 1885 to 1891 to designs by Josef Schulz.
    • The museum was founded in 1818 by Kašpar Maria Šternberk.

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