Basilica of St. George
The Basilica of St. George is the oldest surviving church building within Prague Castle, founded in 920 with a distinctive red-brick Romanesque facade.
City in Czech Republic
Prague
26 things to see8 of them free
Prague is one of Europe’s best cities for sightseeing on almost nothing, because the famous sights are the streets themselves. Walking across Charles Bridge, wandering the medieval lanes of the Old Town, and watching the Astronomical Clock chime on Old Town Square cost nothing at all. The grounds, courtyards, and gardens of Prague Castle are free to roam, and the climb up Petrin Hill or the ramparts of Vysehrad fortress delivers the city’s best panoramas for free. Czech beer is famously cheap, so step away from the central tourist strip and a neighborhood pub will pour a local lager for a fraction of what you would pay back home. Visit in shoulder season (April to May or September to October) for thinner crowds and lower room prices than the summer peak. Prague also pairs well with budget day trips: Kutna Hora and Karlovy Vary are easy by train, while Cesky Krumlov and Dresden make natural onward stops.
What to see
Things to do in Prague
8 of these cost nothing at all.
Charles Bridge
Charles IV laid the foundation stone of the Karluv most at 5:31 AM on July 9, 1357, a moment chosen for its numerological palindrome (1-3-5-7-9-7-5-3-1) that the emperor believed would give the bridge supernatural strength. The bridge took 45 years to build and was Prague's only Vltava crossing for nearly 500 years.
Dancing House
The Dancing House (Tančící dům) stands on a Vltava embankment lot that was left vacant for nearly 50 years after U.S. bombers accidentally hit Prague in February 1945, mistaking it for Dresden. Architect Vlado Milunic had conceived the project in 1986 while living next door, in conversations with his neighbor Václav Havel.
Estates Theatre
The Estates Theatre is a neoclassical theater where Mozart personally premiered Don Giovanni in 1787. The exterior is free to admire and the interior can be experienced through performances with ticket prices well below Western European opera houses.
Golden Lane
Zlata ulicka (Golden Lane) is a row of tiny houses built in the late 16th century directly against the inside wall of Prague Castle's fortifications. Each house is a single room wide, painted in different colors, and the overall effect is somewhere between a fairy tale and a documentary about how the castle's service workers actually lived.
John Lennon Wall
The John Lennon Wall in Mala Strana has been covered in graffiti, lyrics, and political messages since the 1980s. It started as a quiet act of defiance during the communist era and became a permanent, ever-changing street art surface.
Jewish Quarter Prague
Prague's Josefov, the former Jewish ghetto, documents one of Europe's oldest Jewish communities and its near-total destruction during the Holocaust. The combined museum ticket covers six synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery, where headstones are stacked in layers because the ground was too full to accommodate them in a single layer.
Josefov Synagogues
The Josefov synagogues are a group of six historic synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague's Jewish Quarter. The combined ticket covers most sites.
Kafka Head
The Head of Franz Kafka is a kinetic sculpture by David Cerny near the Quadrio shopping center, an 11-meter, 42-ton head made of 42 independently rotating chrome panels that continuously shift, align to form Kafka's face, and then dissolve again. Free to see from the street.
Kampa Island Prague
Kampa is a small island in the Vltava separated from the Malá Strana (Lesser Town) district by the narrow Čertovka (Devil's Channel), first documented in the 15th century and historically used for mill operations.
Letna Park
Letna Park is a large hillside park above the Vltava with a terrace that offers one of the best panoramic views of Prague's bridges and old town. Free.
Naplavka Riverbank
Prague locals have been gathering on the Náplavka embankment for centuries, but the city rediscovered it around 2010 when farmers' markets and converted boat bars turned this stretch of Vltava riverbank into one of the most genuinely local hangouts in Prague.
Old Jewish Cemetery
The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague's Josefov quarter contains an estimated 100,000 burials in up to 12 stacked layers, because the community was forbidden from expanding the burial ground.
Old-New Synagogue
The Old-New Synagogue is the oldest active synagogue in Europe, built around 1270 in early Gothic style. Entry requires a paid ticket.
Petrin Hill
The 63.5-meter Petrin Observation Tower was built in 1891 as a direct copy of the Eiffel Tower, two years after members of the Czech Tourist Club saw the Paris original.
Petrin Tower
The Petrin Observation Tower is a 63-meter steel tower on Petrin Hill, a smaller version of the Eiffel Tower built in 1891 for the Jubilee Exhibition. Entry to the tower is paid at a modest price.
Powder Gate
The Powder Gate is a Gothic tower marking the ceremonial entrance to the Old Town, originally part of the city's 15th-century fortifications. Climbing the tower costs a small fee and rewards visitors with views over the Old Town rooftops and the Municipal House next door.
Beer Gardens of Prague
Prague has dozens of outdoor beer gardens where Czech beer costs 1-2 euros per half-liter. The best free-entry gardens with views include Letna Beer Garden (panoramic view of the Vltava bridges), Riegrovy Sady Beer Garden (castle view), and Naplavka boat bars (river level).
Prague Castle
Prague Castle is the largest coherent castle complex in the world, covering roughly 70,000 square meters. In 1618, Protestant nobles threw two Catholic Habsburg governors out of a castle window in what became known as the Defenestration of Prague, triggering the Thirty Years' War.
Riegrovy Sady
Riegrovy sady is the beer garden viewpoint that Prague locals use and most tourists miss. The park sits on a hillside in Vinohrady, a bourgeois residential neighborhood built in the late 19th century on the eastern edge of the city, and the western terrace looks directly over the rooftops toward Prague Castle.
Rudolfinum
The Rudolfinum is a neo-Renaissance concert hall on the banks of the Vltava, home to the Czech Philharmonic. The building exterior and riverside terrace are free to enjoy.
St. Vitus Cathedral
The Czech crown jewels are locked behind a door with seven locks inside this cathedral, and each key is held by a different official: the president, the prime minister, the senate president, the parliamentary speaker, the Prague mayor, the archbishop, and the cathedral dean. They are displayed publicly roughly once every five years.
Tyn Church
The Church of Our Lady before Tyn dominates the Old Town Square skyline with its twin Gothic spires. Free to enter during limited visiting hours, the dark Baroque interior contains the tomb of astronomer Tycho Brahe.
Vysehrad
This hilltop fortress south of the center predates Prague Castle and sits above the Vltava with wide-open views toward the Old Town skyline. The 11th-century Rotunda of St Martin is the oldest standing structure in Prague. Vysehrad Cemetery holds the graves of Dvorak, Smetana, Mucha, and dozens of other Czech cultural figures.
Vysehrad Cemetery
The Vysehrad Cemetery inside the Vysehrad fortress is the national cemetery of the Czech Republic, where Dvorak, Smetana, Mucha, and Kafka's parents are buried. Free.
Wenceslas Square
Wenceslas Square is where the Czech Republic announced itself twice: in 1918 when Czechoslovakia declared independence from the Habsburg empire, and again in 1989 when half a million people gathered to end communist rule.
On foot
Walks and free tours in Prague
Tip-based tours and self-guided routes, which is usually the cheapest orientation there is.
Prague Old Town Free Tour
The Prague Old Town Free Tour walks through the Old Town, across Charles Bridge, and up to Prague Castle in 2.5 hours. It is the canonical free orientation for budget travelers in one of Europe's most walkable historic cities.
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