Prague Self-Guided Walking Audio Tour

The walk stop by stop: the Astronomical Clock, Charles Bridge, St Vitus Cathedral

10 stops · about 53 min walking · start: Henry's Tower (Jindřišská věž) · finish: St Vitus Cathedral

Everything begins below Henry's Tower, the belfry standing on its own in the New Town. Past the Municipal House the walk reaches Old Town Square and the lanes around it, where the Týn Church, the Spanish Synagogue, St Nicholas Church and the Astronomical Clock follow one another. The Charles IV Monument stands where the bridge begins; beyond Charles Bridge lies Malá Strana, with the Holy Trinity Column on its square, and above that the castle, where St Vitus Cathedral ends the walk. A different opening stop or another order can be set in the app, and no stop asks for an entry ticket.

Open the route map ↗

1. 

   1Henry's Tower (Jindřišská věž)Start

   Henry's Tower is the free-standing belfry of the Church of St Henry and St Kunhuta in Prague's New Town, about 66 metres tall. The stone tower was built in the late 16th century and got its neo-Gothic look in a rebuilding of 1876–1880, and its oldest surviving bell, Maria, was cast in 1518.

   Read the full story →

2. 

   2Municipal House (Obecní dům)

   The Municipal House was built from 1905 and opened in 1912 to designs by Osvald Polívka and Antonín Balšánek, on the site of a medieval royal palace next to the Powder Gate. Above the entrance is Karel Špillar's mosaic Homage to Prague, and in 1918 the building saw the declaration of Czechoslovak independence.

3. 

   3Church of Our Lady before Týn

   The Gothic Týn Church rises behind the houses of Old Town Square, with two towers about 80 metres high; the south tower was finished in 1511. The astronomer Tycho Brahe is buried inside, and the golden Hussite chalice that once crowned the gable was melted down in 1626 for the halo of a statue of the Virgin Mary.

4. 

   4Spanish Synagogue

   The Spanish Synagogue was completed in 1868 in the Moorish Revival style, on the site of what was probably the oldest synagogue in Prague's Jewish Town. Today it is part of the Jewish Museum in Prague, and beside it stands Jaroslav Róna's modern statue of Franz Kafka.

5. 

   5St Nicholas Church (Old Town)

   This Baroque church on Old Town Square was designed by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer for the Benedictines and built in 1732–1737. Its white façade with statues by Antonín Braun only became visible from the square after a house in front of it was demolished in 1902, and today it belongs to the Czechoslovak Hussite Church.

6. 

   6Astronomical Clock

   The astronomical clock on the Old Town Hall dates from 1410 and was made by the clockmaker Mikuláš of Kadaň and the astronomer Jan Šindel. Every hour figures of the Apostles appear in the windows above the dials, and according to legend the clockmaker Hanuš was blinded so that he could never build another one.

7. 

   7Charles IV Monument

   This statue of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, stands on Křižovnické náměstí at the Old Town end of Charles Bridge. The Dresden sculptor Ernst Julius Hähnel made it, and it was unveiled in 1848 for the 500th anniversary of Charles University, which Charles founded in 1348.

   Read the full story →

8. 

   8Charles Bridge

   Charles IV had the stone bridge begun in 1357 to designs by Peter Parler, and according to tradition the first stone was laid at 5:31 on 9 July 1357, so that the date and time read the same backwards. The bridge is about 516 metres long and lined with 30 statues and sculpture groups, among them Saint John of Nepomuk.

9. 

   9Holy Trinity Column

   This Baroque plague column on Malá Strana Square was completed in 1715 to mark the end of the plague epidemic that struck Prague in 1713. It was designed by the architect Giovanni Battista Alliprandi, with sculptures by Jan Oldřich Mayer and Ferdinand Geiger.

   Read the full story →

10. 

    10St Vitus CathedralFinish

    Work on the Gothic cathedral inside Prague Castle began in 1344 under Matthias of Arras, Peter Parler took over after his death, and the building was only completed in 1929. It holds the relics of Saint Wenceslas and the tombs of many Bohemian kings, and the Art Nouveau painter Alfons Mucha designed one of its stained-glass windows.