Mala Strana

Mala Strana, the Lesser Town, was founded in 1257 on the left bank below the castle, burned almost entirely in 1541, and was rebuilt through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the quarter where the Catholic nobility and the imperial administration built their town palaces - which is why it is so consistently baroque and why so much of it is walled gardens. The Wallenstein Palace, built in the 1620s for Albrecht von Wallenstein on the site of twenty-three demolished houses, has a garden with a loggia, a grotto wall and bronzes, open free. Terraced palace gardens climb the castle hill and are linked as a route. Nerudova street runs up to the castle lined with houses carrying the emblems that served as addresses before numbering. Kampa island sits between the Vltava and the Certovka mill stream, with the Lennon Wall nearby.

What you actually see

• A baroque quarter - rebuilt from 1541 as the nobility's palace district.
• Wallenstein garden - loggia, grotto wall and bronzes, open free.
• Terraced palace gardens - climbing the castle hill as a linked route.
• House emblems on Nerudova - the signs that served as addresses before numbers.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

Extremely crowded on the Charles Bridge approach and on Nerudova. Terraced gardens are seasonal and ticketed. Restaurants on the main routes are tourist-priced - go a street back.

Nearby

Prague Castle is above; Charles Bridge crosses to the old town.