Beauty and Luxury in Prague’s New Town
Luxury quartier and its characteristics
New Town belongs to the Prague 2 city section, and a small part of it also belongs under Prague 1 and Prague 8. It is home to 25,000 people and the locality spreads over an area of 334 ha. New Town neighbours on Vyšehrad, Vinohrady, Žižkov and Karlín, with Holešovice, Staré město (Old town) and Smíchov on the opposite bank of the Vltava River. The New Town locality is characteristic with its luxurious old residential buildings, but many new buildings have been constructed recently as well.
History
New Town was founded by Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia Charles IV. He wanted to elevate his seat to the greatest glory and endow it with all the important institutions of the time. His activity was guided by the ideal vision of making Prague the new metropolis of the empire – after Rome, Constantinople and the papal city of Avignon. Medieval cities at the time had narrow, crooked street. For the newly established New Town, very wide avenues were designed, connecting together three marketplaces. It was a spectacular project at the time. Charles IV strove to decorate New Town with lavish representative buildings, consisting mainly of cathedrals and monastery compounds.
Images of the past century
The 20th Cetury added several solitaires to the architectural face of New Town. Several new public buildings were constructed, such as the Lucerna, Koruna and Adria palaces, the Legiobanka or Škoda enterprise buildings, the U Nováků, Bílá labuť and Dům módy department stores, Mánes pavilion and more.
Cultural monuments
New Town is packed with luxury cultural monuments. We will only focus on the most important ones: the Neo-renaissance National Theatre building (1868-1881), and the leading Czech museum institution – the majestic National Museum at the top of Wenceslas Square. Another important building is the New Town Hall in gothic style on Karlovo Náměstí and the pearl of contemporary architecture, the Dancing House.
What else is there?
This quartier is also home to the State Opera building, theatres such as Rokoko, ABC, Černé divadlo Jiřího Srnce or Divadlo na Zábradlí and others. Film lovers will be delighted by the art cinemas, including Kino Mat, Kino Lucerna and Kino Art. New Town is also a luxury district full of cafes and bars where artists meet. Today, these include the P.M. Club & Cocktail Music Bar in Trojická Street or the A2larm night club in Krokova Street, or the Legenda Restaurant & Music Bar in Legerova Street. You can also visit the Quadrio shopping centre and its open space for modern art.
A walk through New Town reveals unusual experiences.
