Prague, Czech Republic — Activities
Prague Culture
Prague is unquestionably a musical city. The Prague Spring Festival is one of the major world-class festivals, but concerts abound throughout the year. And this is not the end of the matter - buskers are found everywhere and the streets, squares and bridges echo to everything from talented students from the Conservatoire, to Dixieland jazz, folk, world music and pop.
Tickets for events can be purchased at Ticketpro, Rytířská 31, Prague 1 (tel: 2963 33333; website: www.ticketpro.cz). Ticketpro accepts credit cards but does not book for the bigger classical venues. Bohemia Ticket International (BTI), Na přikopì 16, Prague 1 (tel: 2242 15031; website: www.ticketsbti.cz), is another ticket agency. Ticket agencies tend to mark up ticket prices, especially for foreigners. Purchasing tickets from the relevant box office usually saves quite a bit of money. Visitors should purchase Spring Festival tickets from the festival office to avoid the hefty mark up.
Weekly listings for all musical events can be found in The Prague Post (website: www.praguepost.cz).
Music: Prague boasts two world-class orchestras. The Czech Philharmonic (tel: 2270 59227; website: www.ceskafilharmonie.cz) is based at the neoclassical Rudolfinum, Alšovo nábřeí 12, Prague 1 (tel: 2248 93111). The Prague Symphony Orchestra (tel: 2220 02336; website: www.fok.cz) performs at its restored home at the Smetana Hall of the Obecní Dùm, Námìstí Republiky 5, Prague 1 (tel: 2220 02336; website: www.obecni-dum.cz). Various other orchestras also turn in high-quality performances and important venues for chamber music concerts include the Church of St Nicolas (Kostel sv Mikuláse), Staromìstské námìstí, Prague 1, the Nostic Palace, Maltézské námìstí 1, Prague 1 (tel: 2245 10131), St Agnes' Convent (Klášter sv. Aneky ceské), U milosrdných 17, Prague 1 (tel: 2248 10835), and the exquisite baroque Chapel of Mirrors (Zrcadlová kaple of the Klementinum), Mariánské námìstí, Prague 1 (tel: 2216 63111).
The standard opera repertoire is offered at the State Opera, Legerova 75, Prague 2 (tel: 2961 17111; website: www.sop.cz). The Estates Theater, Ovocný trh, Prague 1 (tel: 2242 24351; website: www.estatestheater.cz), where Don Giovanni was first performed, still has occasional Mozart operas.
Unusual music shows are presented in the summer at the Křiíkova Fontana (Krizik's Fountain), in Luna Park, Prague 7, with shows linking music, lights, fountains and water features.
Theater: There are currently several companies exhibiting shows combining music, dance and 3D effects with ultraviolet light features, known as Black Light Theater. Genres run from classical to rock and all the companies are excellent. They include The Black Light Theater, Jiří Grossmann Theater, Václavské námìstí 43 (tel: 2240 32172; website: www.wow-show.com) and Laterna Magika, Narodni 4 (tel: 2249 31482; website: www.laterna.cz). Excellent summer shows are presented at Divaldo Globe, Vystaviste (tel: 2201 03608), a reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theater.
Dance: Classical ballet is prevalent at the major theaters but modern dance companies, with their experimental and multimedia techniques, offer a far more exciting evening. Ponec, Husitská 24A, Prague 3 (tel: 2248 17886; website: www.divadloponec.cz), is a new performance space owned by the dance company Tanec Praha (tel: 2248 17886; website: www.tanecpha.cz). It has a varied and challenging program of Czech and international companies.
Film: The majority of foreign films in Prague are screened in their original language - subtitled films are billed as titulek and films dubbed into Czech are dabovat. The best cinema for feature films, as well as experimental and late-night programs, is 64 U Hradeb, Mostecká 21, Prague 1 (tel: 2575 31158). Lucerna, Vodickova 36 (tel: 2242 24537; website: www.lucerna.cz) for all its faded glory, remains an atmospheric art deco movie palace. Cinema Broadway, Na přikopì 31, Prague 1 (tel: 2216 13278), is the best venue for epic films. MAT Studio at Karlovo námìstí 19, Prague 1 (tel: 2249 15765; website: www.mat.cz), shows Czech films with English subtitles at 2200; with a capacity of just 24, advance purchase of tickets is essential.
South of Smíchov is the Barrandov Studio. Built by Václav Havel's grandfather after WWI, it soon became the center of the Czech film industry. Paul Wegener's The Golem (1920) vividly brought to life the medieval legend of the Jewish clay automaton (with studio expressionist sets that recreated the claustrophobic ghetto) and Henrik Galeen's The Student of Prague (1926), a tale of the Doppelgänger (evil double) recreated the early 19th-century city. Gustave Machatý's Erotikon (1929) reveals art deco Prague in all its glory, while his Extase (1933), winner at the Venice Bienniale in 1934, created a sensation with its daring nude scene by Austrian actress Hedy Kiesler.
Literary Notes: The German poet Edward Mörike wrote a novella called Mozart's Journey to Prague (1855), which is a delightful, if fanciful, account of the composer's trip in 1787 to conduct the premiere of Don Giovanni. Jan Neruda (the ‘Czech Dickens') provides fascinating 19th-century vignettes in Lesser Town Tales (1878), while Gustav Meyrink's The Golem (1915) remains the classic version of the story concerning the medieval Jewish automaton. Although also gothic in character, F Marion Crawford's occult novel The Witch of Prague (1891), provides a wealth of description of the city in the late 1880s.
Prague's most famous writer, Franz Kafka, generally took a more jaundiced view of the city, filtered through the bewildering and menacing absurdities of Hapsburg bureaucracy. His masterpieces include The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) and The Transformation and Other Stories (1915). Just as Kafka has spawned an industry of souvenirs, so too has the anti-hero of Jaroslav Hasek's comic masterpiece of World War I, The Good Soldier Svejk (1921). Karel Capek's anti-utopian play, RUR (1921), added the word ‘robot' to the international vocabulary. For the Stalinist period, Milan Kundera's The Joke (1967) is a far superior work to his better known The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984).
Since the Velvet Revolution, literature (often experimental) has flourished in the Czech Republic. Michael Viewegh's Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia (1994) offers a wry look at rampant capitalism and sex in modern suburban Prague. Peter Demetz's Prague in Black and Gold: The History of a City (1998) is richly textured historical work that delves beneath the smooth tourist veneer of the city today to vividly reveal more barbarous and brutal times. Arthur Phillips's Prague Pictures: Portrait of a City (2003) is a lively history of the city with splashes of personal color.
Prague Tours
Walking Tours
A number of companies offer excellent walking tours of Prague, some with themes such as ghosts, Kafka and legends. Most last about two hours. Leaflets are available at all tourist information service locations (see Tourist Information). Most tours start from beneath the Astrological Clock in the Old Town Square. Guides will hold up an umbrella of some color so that people joining the tour can locate them.
Walks of Prague, Dobraticka 523, Prague 18 (tel: 7378 84745; website: www.walksofprague.cz), offers scheduled themed walks, including the four-hour (with a tram trip) Grand Walk, as well as tours of Jewish Prague and the Castle District. Guides speak English, French, German, Russian and Spanish. The company also arranges personal guides for individual tours.
Prague Tours (website: www.praguer.com) provides a number of walking tours, as well as bicycle and boat tours. Daily Walks of Prague (tel: 2819 17642; website: www.walks.cz) and Prague Travel Ltd (tel: 2225 16064; website: www.praguetravel.cz) both offer a number of walks. Wittmann Tours (tel: 2222 52472; website: www.wittmann-tours.com) specializes in tours of Jewish interest, both in the city and further afield.
Bus Tours
Prague Sightseeing Tours (tel: 2223 14661; website: www.pstours.cz) depart from Námìstí Republiky and terminate in the city center - free pick up from most 4-star hotels can also be arranged. The ‘Grand City Tour', which takes in all the major sights and includes a walking tour, takes three-and-a-half-hours. All tours are in English and other major European languages on request.
Bus tours of Prague and other tourist locations are also available through Best Tour (tel: 2848 14141; website: www.besttour.cz) and Bohemia Travel Service (tel: 2248 26262; website: www.citytours.cz).
Boat Tours
Prague Sightseeing Tours (tel: 2223 14661/5; website: www.pstours.cz) offers three special boat tours. A cruise on the Vltava River with lunch and music takes passengers under the Charles Bridge on this two-and-a-half-hour trip. The two-hour cruise on the Vltava River with coffee and cake is cheaper and travels past the Prague Castle District and Lesser Town. The ‘Prague by Night Tour' is three hours of onboard dining and cruising, before a one-hour coach trip to Prague's most beautiful squares. All tours depart by coach from Námìstí Republiky.
Other Tours
Dopravní podnik Prahy (tel: 8001 91817; website: www.dp-praha.cz) offers tours around the city center on the Historic Tram 91 at weekends March-November. The circular route runs from Výstaviste, through Malá Strana, across the Vltava to the National Theater, through Wenceslas Square and returns to Výstaniste via Námìstí Republiky. Travelers can board at any stop en route - an entire round trip takes an hour.
Fiacres (horse-drawn taxis) offer tours of the center of the Old Town. Fiacres are found along the west side of the Old Town Square.
Old Timer History Trip (tel: 7768 29897; website: www.historytrip.cz) offers unique tours in Prague, in beautifully restored cars from the great age of Czech motoring, which took place between the two World Wars. Drivers are suitably attired in 1930s costumes. There are a number of set tours.
