Are you looking for things to do around Prague Castle? Try our tourist scavenger hunt to walk through and around Prague Castle while discovering its many palaces and churches!
In fact, it will take you from Prague Castle and its monuments to the Church of St. Benedict, then to the Senate, by way of several museums, palaces, and churches. We offer challenges at every step. Often, challenges will tell you where you are going next and a bit of local history and advice.
Prague is the capital and most important city of the Czech Republic located on the Vltava River. It has a metropolitan population of 2.6 million.
- Vitus Cathedral
- Prague Castle
- Rosenberg Palace
- Nicholas Church
- Museum of Alchemy and Magicians of Old
- Wallenstein gardens
- Hungarian Senate
- Gingerbread Museum
- And more
We will visit Prague in the fall of 2019 and will test this hunt then.
- Starting point: Malostranská, Malá Strana, 118 00 Prague 1, Czech Republic
- Distance: 3.2 km / 2 mi
- Duration: 3 hours
- Methode: walking
- Required:
- Fully charged smartphone with internet access (data plan) – Wifi will not be enough.
- Suggested:
- Water bottle
- Local map
Ancient History
This region was inhabited in the Paleolithic period, i.e. from 1306 BC onwards.
The Celts appeared here between the 5th and 4th century AD. They have chased away Germanic tribes in the 1st century AD. Bohemians also occupied the land at this time and they mostly remained here. Prague has since been the center city of Bohemia
Then, in the 5th century, the collapse of the Roman Empire caused great migrations. Germanic tribes moved westward, and Slavic tribes moved in.
Prague Castle was begun in the 9th century, on fortifications dating back to the 7th century. Fort Vysehrad was started in the 10th century.
The city flourished in the 14th century during the reign of King Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and King of Bohemia. He transformed the city into an imperial capital. It became the 3rd largest in Europe after Rome and Constantinople.
In the 16th century, Gypsies (Bohemians) elected Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, as King of Bohemia and Hungary. He was also King of Croatia. These lands at the time include present-day Austria. Ferdinand I was of the Habsburg dynasty.
In 1689, the city succumbed to widespread fire. This generated reconstruction of the entire city.
Modern History
The 18th century saw the plague kill up to 13,000 inhabitants, then Frederick the Great of Prussia invaded Bohemia.
Czechoslovak nationalism began in the wake of the European revolutions of 1848. Before that, German was the main language spoken, whereas after, with an infusion of Czechoslovaks, Bohemians, and Moravians, Czech became dominant.
In 1918, independence of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed, and Prague became its capital.
In 1934, when Hitler took power in Germany, many Germans fled to Prague fearing the worst. But in 1939 Bohemia-Moravia was conquered by the Nazis. The population at that time included 55,000 Jews. Only 7,500 survived the Nazis. The city is otherwise untouched by the war.
Then, after the war, the country became communist from 1945 to 1989 as the Soviet Union oversaw its governance. In 1968, the Czechoslovak communist party attempted liberalization by adopting freedom of the press, expression, and circulation.
However, this is quickly crushed by 400,000 Warsaw Pact soldiers (USSR version of NATO). The USSR wanted to normalize communism across its republics.
Finally, in 1989, as the Berlin Wall fell, the country and the city regained their democratic freedoms and independence from the USSR, with the Velvet Revolution.
