Prague's New Town: the 1348 planned district that is now the centre

A district called the New Town that was founded in 1348 sounds like a joke, but the name makes sense once you see what Charles IV did. Prague then had two towns, the Old Town and the Lesser Town, and a king who wanted a capital for the Holy Roman Empire. He did not rebuild what existed. He added a third town, laid out on a plan, and the plan still decides how the centre of Prague works.

A town drawn on a plan

The New Town was established by royal charter in 1348, on the right bank, in an arc around the Old Town. The king gave settlers building plots and set requirements for how quickly they had to build. Unlike the Old Town, it did not grow around a market square in the course of a century. Its main streets and squares were set out from the start, and its walls enclosed a large area that was only slowly filled.

The result is a district of broad streets by medieval standards. The three market squares, the Horse Market, the Cattle Market and the Hay Market, were each given a purpose, and each was far larger than anything in the older towns. The Cattle Market became the present Charles Square, which is often described as one of the largest medieval squares in Europe. The Horse Market became Wenceslas Square. The Hay Market is today better known as Senovážné náměstí.

Wide streets also made the district easier to move through than the cramped older towns. Our article on Charles IV and Prague puts the New Town in the context of his wider building programme.

Wenceslas Square

Wenceslas Square is not strictly a square. It is a long boulevard of about 750 metres, rising gently toward the National Museum, which closes the view at the top. The statue of St Wenceslas in front of the museum is a meeting point and a political symbol. The square has been the stage for most of the national demonstrations in modern Czech history.

Three of those events stand out. In 1918 crowds gathered there to celebrate the founding of Czechoslovakia, an event covered in our piece on the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918. In 1969 the student Jan Palach burned himself in protest against the occupation of the country by Warsaw Pact troops. And in November 1989 huge crowds gathered in and around the square as the communist government lost control, which is described in Czechoslovakia under communism.

Today the square is mostly commercial. Hotels, shops, currency-exchange booths and fast-food outlets line it. The passages that open off it are more interesting than the main strip. Lucerna, a large arcade complex built in the early 20th century by Václav Havel's grandfather, has a cinema, a ballroom and a maze of corridors. The explainer on Václav Havel's Prague covers his links to it.

The squares and streets beyond

Charles Square is a park-like space of broad lawns and old trees that provides a break from the surrounding streets. The New Town Hall on its north side was the site of the First Defenestration in 1419, when Hussite supporters threw councillors out of the window. The square is lined with a church, a hospital complex, and Faust House, a baroque building that carries many legends.

Toward the river, the New Town includes embankments with some of the best-known modern buildings in the city. The Dancing House, completed in 1996 to a design by Vlado Milunić and Frank Gehry, stands at the embankment end of Resslova street. People still argue about it, and it shows how the New Town's plan has absorbed change.

Na Příkopě street follows the line of the moat that separated the Old Town from the New Town, which is why it curves. The Old Town's walls were demolished, and the street is now a pedestrian route lined with banks and shops, connecting Wenceslas Square with the Powder Tower.

Why it matters for transport

The New Town is where Prague's transport network meets. The metro's three lines cross it in a triangle: Můstek on lines A and B, Muzeum on lines A and C, and Florenc on lines B and C. Anyone who understands that pattern can read the metro map, a point we develop in the piece on metro lines and network logic. The main railway station, Praha hlavní nádraží, stands on the eastern edge of the district; see Prague railway stations explained.

The result is the busiest and best-connected part of Prague, and one of the hardest places to park. The parking zones guide explains the system.

Living in the New Town

The New Town is mostly commercial in its central parts, and residential in its edges, such as the area around Charles Square and toward Vyšehrad. The buildings are of every period, from baroque houses to 19th-century tenement blocks to socialist-era office buildings. Many flats are in protected buildings; see heritage protection and building restrictions.

Noise is a real consideration, particularly near Wenceslas Square and along the main roads, and anyone choosing a flat there should visit at night. The side streets between the main arteries can be surprisingly calm.

Churches and monasteries off the main axis

Charles IV filled the New Town with religious foundations, and several survive. The Church of Our Lady of the Snows, founded in 1347, was planned on a grand scale as a coronation church, but only its soaring chancel was completed, which is why the building looks oddly tall and narrow today. The Emmaus Monastery, founded in 1347 for Benedictines who used the Slavonic liturgy, is in the south of the district. It was damaged in the Allied bombing of Prague on 14 February 1945 and rebuilt after the war with distinctive modern spires.

These sites are worth seeking out for another reason. They are quiet, they are not on the standard tourist route, and they show how much of the original plan was institutional: churches, cloisters and hospitals, set within the broad blocks that the king's surveyors laid out. If the Old Town is the city of merchants, the New Town was designed as a city of foundations.

A walk through them also explains the district's edges. To the south the New Town runs toward Vyšehrad, whose fortress hill and cemetery are covered in the guide to Prague's cemeteries and monuments, and to the east it meets the railway and the Florenc transport hub.

Institutions and daily life

The New Town is also a district of institutions. The General University Hospital and several university buildings stand around Charles Square, banks and offices cluster along Na Příkopě and the main avenues, and the theatres and the National Museum sit at its two ends. This mix of public and commercial functions explains why the district is busy on weekdays and why many of its residential streets feel empty after office hours. For a resident, the benefit is that nearly everything is within walking distance. The cost is that the district never quite closes, and noise is a constant of living near the main axes.

Frequently asked questions

Why is it called the New Town if it is nearly 700 years old?

It was new in 1348 compared with the Old Town and the Lesser Town. The name stuck.

Is Wenceslas Square a good place to eat?

The main strip is aimed at passing trade. Streets one or two blocks away offer a wider choice at fairer prices.

Where is the National Museum?

At the top of Wenceslas Square, beside the Muzeum metro station. Check the museum's website for opening hours and the current exhibitions.

Is the New Town part of the historic centre?

Yes. It is included in the UNESCO-listed historic centre of Prague, together with the Old Town, the Lesser Town, Hradčany and Josefov.

Walk from the National Museum down Wenceslas Square and along Na Příkopě to the Powder Tower. You will have crossed from one medieval town to another, and the street curve is the only sign.