The Old Town without barriers

Náměstí Republiky Square → Na Příkopě → arcade Myslbek →

The first interesting building right at the beginning of the route is the Municipal House, a showpiece of Prague Art Nouveau. It was built at the beginning of the 20th century by the Municipality of the Royal Capital City of Prague as a cultural and social centre. The most important artists of that time participated in its decoration and the craftsmanship was excellent.

Where the Municipal House stands now, once stood the 15th century King’s Court, one of the residences of the then Czech kings. The Royal Coronation Route also began here. Harking back to that time is the late Gothic Powder Gate Tower, once a representative entrance to the Old Town of Prague from the direction of Kutná Hora, a city whose silver mines brought great weath to the treasury.

Having taken the adapted crossing in front of the Powder Gate Tower, we will get on to the Na Příkopě shopping boulevard. A wide walkway on the right side will lead us to the modern building of the Myslbek Palace, which will serve us as a way through to “Ovocný trh”, the former Fruit Market. The passage here is slightly inclined (2–3%) and in addition to a number of shops or restaurants, there are also sanitary facilities, with an accessible toilet.

→ Ovocný trh → Celetná → Old Town Square → Malé náměstí →

The Fruit Market is a small square, but there are several important Prague buildings here. First of all, the Classicist Estates Theatre, right near which is the Karolinum building, the historical seat of Charles University. The surface of the square consists mainly of coaser granite paving, only the peripheral sections being paved with a finer mosaic. 

From Ovocný trh, which is a pedestrian zone, we will head northeast towards Celetná street, where on the left side we will notice a fine Cubist building — the House at the Black Madonna. It was built in 1911—1912 as designed by Czech architect Josef Gočár. In addition to the collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts, dedicated to Czech Cubism, it has a stylish café here and
sanitary facilities with an adapted toilet.

We can proceed along Celetná street to the Old Town Square, which has witnessed a number of major events over the centuries. What was once Prague’s most important marketplace below Prague castle is surrounded by a number of patrician houses from the 12th and 13th centuries, the Town Hall and the Parish Church of Our Lady before Týn from the 14th century, as well as other outstanding buildings.

Over the low-profile kerb on the corner by the Astronomical Clock we get to a wide walkway with mosaic paving in front of the Old Town Hall. It is only partially accessible, via the rear entrance from Mikulášská ulice.

Through the arcade of the neighbouring house U Minuty, covered with sgraffito decoration, we can make a pleasant detour to the Small Square, “Malé náměstí”. Here, part of the route runs along a roughly paved sidewalk. Passing Franz Kafka’s birthplace on Kafka Square and the Baroque Dientzenhofer Church of St Nicholas we come back to the Old Town Square. 

→ The Jewish Town (Židovské Město) → Haštalská quarter (Haštalská čtvrť) → Dlouhá třída → Náměstí Republiky Square

We will enter the former Jewish ghetto precinct through Pařížská street, which exemplifies the building development that followed
the ghetto clearance at the end of the 19th century. The Old Jewish Cemetery and other surviving historical buildings to the left of Pařížská street are not known for being accessible, however. We will therefore be turning right, over the updated crossing, to Širokástreet. This will take us along the left walkway to the partially accessible Spanish Synagogue, which houses an exhibition about the fate of Prague Jewry.

We then continue along the left-hand-side mosaic-paved walkway to Vězeňská street, which brings us to a small open space with several benches. All the nearby crossings have slanted kerbs, but expect some rough historical paving on the adjacent roads. Through Haštalská street we head towards Haštalské náměstí square, the heart of a quiet but charming neighbourhood, with restaurants and cafés.

We can now make a detour into Anežská street, and will find the entrance to the St Agnes Convent at the intersection. However,
getting to this remarkable complex is more difficult, because the walkway ends just behind the church of St Haštal (St Castulus), so we need to go over the sloped kerb onto the road and continue along the very rough cobbled paving along Anežská street along an incline. Thankfully, car traffic here is minimal.

The expanse of St Agnes Convent offers a permanent exhibition of medieval art and some pleasant seating in the garden.

We will then retrace our route back to Haštalské square and continue along the right walkway of Rámová street to Dlouhá třída. This will first take us along the left walkway and from the crossing with Rybná street along the right walkway to Revoluční street and further, to the starting point of the entire route, Náměstí Republiky square, with its partially accessible tram stops and inaccessible Metro station.