Prague Castle walking tour

This scavenger hunt has a difficulty level of NORMAL.

Buy either an individual or a group ticket. We recommend a group size of 3 to 6 people, but it is not limited to this. Children are welcome and will enjoy most of the challenges.

After purchase, to begin your hunt in Prague Castle Historic Center, you will need to be outside the Malostranská Metro station, Malá Strana, 118 00 Prague 1, Czech Republic. This is the start location.

Once there, stand outside, log in to this website and begin your hunt, or go to My Account and follow the instructions.

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 centuries BCE. They chased away Germanic tribes in the 1st century CE. 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 Vyšehrad 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, the Gypsies (Bohemians) elected Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, as King of Bohemia and Hungary. He was also the King of Croatia. These lands at the time included present-day Austria. Ferdinand 1 was of the Habsburg dynasty.

In 1689, the city succumbed to widespread fire. This generated the 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, Czechoslovakia proclaimed its independence, 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. At the time, the population included 55,000 Jews. Only 7,500 survived the Nazis. The city is otherwise untouched by the war.

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, 400,000 Warsaw Pact soldiers (the USSR’s version of NATO) quickly crushed this. 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.