Old Town Square, Prague

Old Town Square is Prague’s historic gathering place in the Old Town, set between Wenceslas Square and Charles Bridge. Its broad paved expanse has served as a market ground since the eleventh century, and the Royal Route passes through it. The Town Hall and astronomical clock give the square its civic face; the clock was installed in fourteen ten and remains the world’s oldest working astronomical clock.

Near the Town Hall tower, twenty-seven crosses set into the paving commemorate Czech lords executed here after the Battle of White Mountain. Let those marks lead your eye across the paving, then take in the Jan Hus Memorial. It was unveiled in nineteen fifteen, marking five centuries since Hus’s death. The Marian Column nearby was torn down after independence from Habsburg rule and returned in twenty twenty.