The Jewish quarter in Prague goes back to the city's very beginnings. From the 9C, communities were set up and in the 13C settled in a ghetto complete with its own fortifications in the heart of the Old City. Over the years and monarchies, the Jews were surpressed in the 1389 pogrom, excluded 1541-63 and in 1744, tolerated or integrated (with the Edict for Tolerance by Joseph II in 1781). The ghetto was abandoned in the late 19C and cleansed in the asanace, which left it as it is today.

This was the first stone bridge over the Vltava built under the orders of Charles VI. It joins Stare Mesto and Mala Strana and was built between 1357 and 1402. Charles Bridge is a 516-metre-long, 9.5-metre-wide Gothic structure resting on mortar joints that, legend would have it, were prepared with egg yolk and wine! It has seen all the great and evil events of this city and for 600 years has defied all of man's assaults and the river's sometimes powerful moods.

Standing at the foot of the Castle, everything here points to the presence of power: Nerudova Street was formerly the end of the coronation route, palaces of the great men of yesteryear that have now been turned into embassies, and bourgeois houses and businesses with porches and facades reflecting the opulence of the times.

Occupying the old animal market set up by Charles IV for his New City, this square of green land is sadly cut through with the wide Jecna Street and its tramlines. 530 metres long and 150 metres wide, this is the largest square in Prague. To the north of the square is the City Hall of Nove Mesto: it was built in the Gothic style in the late 14C, then burned down several times, and was redesigned in the 16C and much restored in the 20C.