City tours
PRAGUE - magical city (Czech Republic)
Prague is a magical city of chequered, more than ten centuries long history, towering churches, centuries-old bridges, alleyways, and buildings that span over various style periods: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque as well as classical or with elements of Art Nouveau.
The capital of the Czech Republic is often referred to as the City of a Hundred Spires, and is widely recognized to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Prague achieved much of its present glory in the 14th century, during the long reign of Charles IV, the King of Bohemia and Moravia and the Holy Roman Emperor. It was Charles who established a university in the city and laid out the New Town (Nové Město), charting Prague’s growth.
The spine of the city is the River Vltava (also known by its German name, Moldau), which runs through the city from south to north with a single sharp curve to the east. Prague originally comprised of five in¬dependent towns, represented today by its main historical districts: Hradčany (Castle Area), Malá Strana (Lesser Quarter), Staré Město (Old Town), Nové Město (New Town), and Josefov (the Jewish Quarter). Fourteen big bridges vaulting across the River Vltava contribute to the face of Prague (plus one more that runs across the Nusle valley). The oldest and the most precious one was built in 1357 and bears the name of its founder Charles IV.
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PODĚBRADY - an ancient picturesque spa city (Czech Republic)
Poděbrady is an ancient picturesque town and a spa resort, located in the fertile lowlands that flank the river Elbe, 50 km east of the capital of Prague.
Price: 5h 28EUR
Chronicles first mention it as a settlement in 1224. Later, a castle was built there to protect a then nearby trade route and a ford. In the 15th century the King Jiří of Poděbrady granted the town borough status, and later, in the 17th century, a small spa was founded around a spring of healing ferruous mineral water. The modern history of the town and spa development begins in 1905, when a new, strong spring of carbonic mineral water with magnesium and calcium was discovered. The spa park and the first house were established two years later.
Healing water, surrounding lowlands and low altitude explain the popularity of the spa among patients with cardiac disorders. Due to the successful development of the resort, silence and beauty of its magnificent parks and gardens together with active cultural, public and sport life, Poděbrady became a favorite place of rest and treatment for plenty of people from all around the world.
The Poděbrady Chateau is one of the most important historical monuments of East Bohemia. It was originally a Gothic castle built at the end of the 13th century. Its remarkable history is connected to the Czech King Jiří of Poděbrady. A large reconstruction was carried out in the middle of the 16th century, transforming the former castle into a Renaissance chateau. Baroque style alterations followed in the 18th century. Today, the chateau is open to public.
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NELAHOZEVES - the birthplace of Antonín Dvořák (Czech Republic)
Nelahozeves was (1841-1904), one of the greatest Czech composers.
Price: 5h 29EUR
Antonín Dvořák was known for weaving folk influences into Romantic music. Dvořák’s pretty corner house on the main road with its tidy windows and arches, has a small memorial museum. In his time, the house was an inn run by his parents, and it was here that he learned to play the violin.
The most prominent sight in town is the 16th century Renaissance chateau of Nelahozeves, a pinnacle of Renaissance architecture in Bohemia. Once the residence of the powerful Lobkowitz family, the chateau now houses a rich, excellent collection of fine art, including paintings by Brueghel, Rubens, and Velasquez, together with one of the largest collections of Spanish portraits from the 16th and 17th centuries outside of Spain. The exhibit includes a voluminous collection of furniture (glorious pieces from 16th to 18th century mostly), glass, pottery, china, metalwork, and rare books. Additional highlights include musical instruments and manuscripts of Beethoven, Mozart, and others.
The exterior black-and-white sgraffiti is quite well preserved, and so are some of the interiors. One of the best preserved Renaissance spaces is the beautiful Knight's Hall with a stone fireplace and paintings on walls and ceiling.
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MĚLNÍK - an ancient royal downry town (Czech Republic)
Mělník is an ancient royal downry town, known best perhaps as the source of the Ludmila wine, that got its name after a duchess who lived here in the 9th century.
Price: 5h 26EUR
The town’s chateau a few blocks from the main square majestically guards the confluence of the Labe (Elbe) River with two arms of the Vltava. Together with the St. Peter and Paul’s Tower it forms an impressive and dominant feature that can be seen from a very long distance. The view here is stunning, and the sunny hillsides are covered with vineyards. According to the locals the Em¬peror Charles IV was responsible for scaling up wine production in the area, which had a 300-year-old wine growing tradition even before his time. Having a good eye for favorable growing conditions, he en¬couraged vintners from Burgundy to come here and plant their vines.
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MARIÁNSKÉ LÁZNĚ - world-famous spa town (Czech Republic)
This beautiful, world-famous spa town situated in a broad valley 50 km south of Karlovy Vary, has just about everything one would expect of the place that Mark Twain once labeled a “health factory”.
Price: 8h 45EUR
Clean air, wonderful scenery and a great deal of natural healing resources – peat, healing gas and many cold mineral springs (Rudolph, Ambrose and Caroline to name just a few, used in treating of bladder and kidney disorders); lovely neoclassic houses and two majestic collonades dominated by the modern Singing fountain; a well groomed parkland, intersecting the town and stretching almost 20 km in width, offering the perfect setting for a serene constitutional stroll; walking trails of various levels of difficulty everywhere around; first-class golf course at the stone’s throw east of the town; mini-golf, tennis courts, swimming pools, saunas, horseback riding, yachting, fishing, hunting, bike trails and other opportunities of active relaxation. If you are more into culture rather than gym, you may want to visit the local drama or movie theater, library, scientific museum, music halls, art galleries, dancing halls, cafés, restaurants or casinos. You may also enjoy the panorama from a much more elevated point of view, taking one of the available tour flights.
No wonder many celebrities of their time including Goethe, Chopin or Edward VII kept coming back during the two-century-long history of the town. It is indeed a unique “rivier in the woods”.
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KUTNÁ HORA - silver town (Czech Republic)
Kutná Hora, included on the lists of the UNESCO, is a picturesque ancient town with cobblestone streets and beautiful, intact Gothic and Baroque townscape.
Price: 6h 31EUR
The town owes its illustrious past to silver, discovered here during the 12th century. Already in the late 13th century, one third of Europe’s total production of silver came from Kutná Hora. The Prague groschen, one of Europe’s strongest currencies of the time, began to be minted here. Thanks to its wealth, Kutná Hora became the second most important town of the Kingdom of Bohemia, and an economic, political, and cultural rival for the capital city of Prague.
The most impressive monument of Kutná Hora, St. Barbara’s Cathedral (St. Barbara being the patron saint of miners), is only 10 minutes away from the main square. The cathe¬dral with the netted vaulting is a masterpiece and a high point of the Gothic style in Bohemia. Other memorable sights include the Hrádek (Little Castle), which was once part of the town’s fortifications and now houses a museum of mining and coin production and a medieval mine tunnel; Vlámský dvůr (Italian Court), an old mint; St. James Church – originally a Gothic church dating from the early 1400s, the structure was almost entirely transformed into Baroque dur¬ing the 17th and 18th centuries.
At the site of the former Sedlec Monastery, you may visit the All Saints’ Cemetery Chapel, decorated with the bones of some 40 000 peo¬ple.
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Konopiště chateau - residence of Franz Ferdinand d’Este (Czech Republic)
Konopiště is best known for its 14th century chateau that once served as a bastion of the nobility in their struggle for power with the king.
Price: 5h 32EUR
Six centuries later it became the residence of the former heir to the Austrian crown, Franz Ferdinand d’Este. Scorned by the Austrian nobility for having married a low-born, he needed an impressive summer residence to win back the envy of his peers. Franz Ferdinand spared no expense in restoring the castle to its original Gothic form. He filled 82 rooms with peculiar statues, paintings and curiosities. His dream came to a fateful end in 1914 as he was assassinated at Sarajevo, an event that triggered World War I.
The chateau with long, rounded, neo-Gothic towers is situated in a lovely for¬mal garden with a circle of sandstone statues of classical gods, sculpted by Matthias Bernard Braun.
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KARLŠTEJN castle - pearl from 14. century (Czech Republic)
This exceptional castle, sitting in the middle of dense forests, was established by the Czech King and Roman Emperor Charles IV (Karel) in 1348 to house the treasures and coronation jewels and the most valuable relics of the Holy Roman Empire.
Price: 5h 33EUR
The construction of the castle was finished in 1365, when the St. Cross Chapel was consecrated.
At the end of the 19th century, the castle was rebuilt by Josef Mocker in attempt to restore its Gothic appearance.
Individual sections of the castle are situated at various height levels according to their significance. The most precious section is the Great Tower with it’s own fortification, hosting the St. Cross Chapel. The walls and ceiling of the Chapel are covered in gilt ornamentation, dating back to the 14th century, with embedded semiprecious stones and pieces of glass that stoke the illusion of a starry sky. Together with the collection of 127 panels, painted mainly by Master Theodorik, Royal Court painter of Charles IV, the Chapel represents a unique, one of the most preserved Gothic interiors in the entire world. However, access to the St. Cross Chapel is strictly supervised; only a few percent of the total number of visitors get to see it every year.
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KARLOVY VARY - most famous Bohemian spa (Czech Republic)
Karlovy Vary in West Bohemia, better known outside the Czech Republic by its German name, Karlsbad, is the most famous Bohemian spa.
Price: 10h 49EUR
It is named for Em¬peror Charles (Karl) IV, who allegedly happened upon the springs in 1358 while on a hunting expedition. As the story goes, the emperor’s hound, chasing a harried stag, fell into a boiling spring and was scalded. Charles had the water tested and, familiar with spas in Italy, ordered baths to be established in the village of Vary. The spa reached its heyday in the 19th century, when royalty came here from all over Europe for treatment. The natural hot springs together with other natural healing resources (gaseous carbon dioxide, mud and peat) play an important role in a wide range of spa procedures.
Visitors may receive “treatment”, including car¬bon-dioxide baths and massage, or just stroll the streets and parks and enjoy the vast variety of things the peaceful town has to offer: tall 19th century houses with decorative and often eccentric facades, marvelous promenades and colon-nades (the most beautiful is the Mlýnská kolonáda, a neo-Renaissance pillared hall), the white Church of Mary Magdalene, de¬signed by Kilian Dientzenhofer, hot sulfuric water of some of the twelve hot springs (the largest spring, Vřídlo, shoots its scalding water to the height of some 12 m), Moser crystal, Thun porcelain, Becherovka Liqueur, Mattoni mineral water, spa wafers, souvenirs made of mineral sediments, open-air heated pool (Termál), and many others.
Today, the old town is a place where various festivals are held (e.g. the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival).
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HLUBOKÁ castle - fairytale-like chateau (Czech Republic)
The town of Hluboká nad Vltavou is famous for its beautiful, fairytale-like chateau.
Price: 10h 54EUR
Originally a Gothic tower of strength from the middle of the 13th century, it was rebuilt into an eminently impressive residence of the wealthy Schwarzenberg family later on in the 19th century, modeled on the English Windsor Castle near London. Today, the romantic chateau stands in the middle of a large English park, lit up entirely at night. It’s splendid, luxurious interiors with unique woodcarving and valuable collections (for example, the wooden Renaissance ceiling in the large dining room that was removed by the Schwarzenbergs from the castle at Český Krumlov and brought here) are open to the public.
The picturesque appearance of the chateau is enhanced through countless oriels, pillars, embrasures, battlements, galleries, gargoyles and other distinctive details of Gothic style.
The complex incorporates a glassed-in winter garden, lavish armoury, chapel and old riding hall, hosting the Aleš Art Gallery, hung with the works of southern Bohemian painters from the middle ages to the present (including a well-known collection of Gothic Madonnas). The Gallery is also a venue of traditional classical music concerts.
Other places in Hluboká nad Vltavou worth paying a visit is the Ohrada hunting lodge with its museum of hunting and a small zoo nearby, or the Vondrov Riding Center with a new riding hall, providing comprehensive services associated with horseback riding.
A wide range of sporting activities is available – tennis, baseball, football, golf, mini-golf, paintball, swimming, etc. You can take a boat trip or an observatory flight from the Hosín Airport.
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ČESKÝ ŠTERNBERK - beatiful castle from 13th century (Czech Republic)
At night, this 13th century castle looks positively forbidding, occupy¬ing a forested knoll over the Sázava River.
Price: 4h 33EUR
By daylight the structure, essentially renovated and powerfully fortificated in the second half of the 17th century after being conquered by the soldiers of Jiří of Poděbrady in 1467 and returned to the aristocracy of Šternberk in ruins much later, is less haunting but still impressive.
In season, you can tour some of the rooms fitted out with period fur¬niture (mostly rococo); Today, the outside of the castle looks pretty monolitic, entirely obscuring its then Gothic richness and diversity. The same goes for the inside – little of the early Gothic has survived multiple renovations. There are Baroque rooms with period furnishings of considerable artistic value, complemented with more recent furniture from the 19th century. Some of the halls have a beautiful Baroque stucco decoration (for example in the Knights’ Hall). Other rooms are dedicated to important representatives of the Šternberk family. Besides many others there is an outstanding, great collection of graphic sheets from the 17th century. The castle has an exhibition of historical weapons, hunting trophies, and a romantic tale of a treasure hidden within its ancient walls.
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Český Krumlov - a picturesque southern Bohemian town (Czech Republic)
Český Krumlov, a picturesque southern Bohemian town of medieval origin, and the official residence of the Rosenbergs for some 300 years, lies close to the Austrian and German border, 170 km south of the capital city of Prague.
Price: 10h 54EUR
None of the surrounding towns or villages, with their open squares and mixtures of old and new buildings, will pre¬pare you for the beauty of the Old Town. Here the Vltava works its wonders as nowhere else but in Prague itself, swirling in a nearly com¬plete circle around the town. Across the river stands the proud castle, rivaling any in the country in size and splendor.
The unrivalled status of the town led it as early as 1963 to be declared a Historical Municipal Reservation. The significance of Český Krumlov as a unique historical monument has most recently culminated in its 1992 inclusion onto the lists of the International Association of UNESCO. Český Krumlov was added to those monuments of world importance to which exceptional care, attention and support has to be essentially devoted. The unique urban core comprises more than 300 historical buildings and its atmosphere is undoubtedly matchless.
The castle, second largest in Bohemia after the Prague castle, has five courtyards and a large park. It also prides on an extensive collection of Renaissance and Baroque art. Cultural and social events, international festivals of theater and music, art galleries, and historical festivals help to spread the fame of the city today. Due to its vast possibilities for both culture and tourism, Český Krumlov has become a significant cultural, social and business center.
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