‘The magic city', ‘the city with 100 bell towers', ‘the golden
city', the Old Town, the New Town, the Jewish Quarter ... all city
quarters are amazing places waiting to be explored. Prague used to be
known as the 'Five Towns', and although it has now been divided into
10 separate districts, most visitors concentrate on the five historic
towns: Hradcany, Stare Mesto (Old Town), Mala Strana (Lesser Quarter),
Nove Mesto (New Town) and the the Jewish Quarter. In earlier times,
the inhabitants of the congested Old Town and Josefov, the old Jewish
Quarter, must have felt envious when they looked across to the New
Town, where the far-sighted designs of Charles IV and his architects
had created broad, open spaces and avenues such as the Charles and
Wenceslas squares. Today, however, the Old Town has been beautifully
restored, and Josefov's Pařížská is a chic avenue lined with
expensive shops. The Royal Way: Intersecting the 4 towns—from the
Cathedral of St Vitus to Charles Bridge, and subsequently onto the
Powder Tower—is the Královská Cesta (Royal Way), the historical
route of coronation marches. These days, this spine of Prague is
blighted by cheap trinket stores and overcrowded by tourist groups.
Only utilize it for orientation—try to circumvent it if you wish to
experience the genuine Prague.
