Czech Out What's Beyond Prague
By Rick Steves
Prague is fascinating, but it's usually the only stop travelers make in the Czech Republic. To get a better picture of the country, try any of these four intriguing destinations, each just an hour away by bus or train from Prague.
Historians appreciate the walled town of Terezín, which served as a containment camp for Jews during World War II. Romantics seek out the two historic castles: Konopiste and Karlstejn. If Halloween is your favorite holiday, you'd like Kutná Hora, with its monk-crafted chapel of bones.
Terezín, northwest of Prague, was a fortified town named after Maria Teresa. It was built in the 1780s with state-of-the-art walls designed to keep out the Prussians. In 1941, the Nazis moved its 7,000 inhabitants out and moved 60,000 Jews in, creating Theresienstadt. This was the model "Jewish town," a concentration camp dolled up for propaganda purposes — to impress Red Cross inspectors. Here in this "self-governed Jewish settlement area," Jewish culture seemed to thrive, as "citizens" put on plays and concerts, published a magazine, and raised their families. But virtually all of Theresienstadt's Jews ultimately ended up dying either here or at concentration camps farther east. The museum has two floors of thought-provoking exhibits and a couple of compelling videos.
The Gestapo police prison is a short walk away. The prison, opened in 1942, was filled not with Jews but with other enemies of the Reich, who now fill the nearby graveyard. Take the powerful 45-minute tour.
The castles — Konopiste (better interior) and Karlstejn (better exterior) — give you a good look at the Czech version of European medieval architecture.
The 14th-century Konopiste Castle houses the extravagant 17th-century hunting lodge of the Hapsburgs. It's bursting with skins, antlers, stuffed birds, weapons, Meissen porcelain, and fancy furniture. The grounds are also entertaining, with bears in the moat and a chorus of pheasants and peacocks welcoming you into the formal gardens.
Karlstejn, one of the Czech Republic's top attractions, was built by Charles IV in about 1350 to house the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire. While a striking fairy-tale castle from a distance, it's not much inside. The castle interior's highlight, the much venerated and sumptuous Chapel of the Holy Cross — built to house the crown jewels — can be seen only with an advance reservation (www.hradkarlstejn.cz).
The delightful town of Kutná Hora sits on what was Europe's largest silver mine. The mine was so productive that, in its day, Kutná Hora was the second most important Czech town (after Prague). The standard coinage of much of Europe was minted right here. By about 1700 the mining and minting petered out and the city slumbered...once rich, then ignored. Today tourists are charmed by its wonderful state of preservation and interesting sights: the dazzling St. Barbara's Cathedral, drizzly mine tour, and eerie church adorned with human bones.
Just outside Kutná Hora is a little church that looks ordinary from the outside. But inside, the bones of 40,000 people decorate the walls and ceilings. Fourteenth-century plagues and 15th-century wars provided all the raw material necessary for monks to vent their creative spirit. The monks who first stacked these bones 400 years ago wanted viewers to remember that the earthly church is a community of both the living and the dead — a countless multitude that will one day stand before God. Later bone-stackers were more into design than theology — a chandelier includes every bone in the human body.
Whether you're in the mood for sobering WWII history, medieval castles, or a quirky church, you can explore and be back in Prague in time for an evening concert.
For lots more information, check out our best-selling Rick Steves' Eastern Europe guidebook — or join us on one of our free-spirited Europe tours!