The Churches Worth Visiting in Prague
Prague is called the city of a hundred spires, which undersells it by about four hundred. You cannot see them all and you should not try. These nine are the ones that repay the walk, in the order we would do them.
A word on planning. Three of these are on the castle hill, three are in Malá Strana at the bottom of it, and three are across the river in the Old Town. Group them that way and you will walk half as far. The castle churches want a morning; Malá Strana and the Old Town can share an afternoon, with the Charles Bridge in between as the connecting piece.
The other thing worth knowing: opening hours here are short and inconsistent, and several of the best interiors close at four. Prague rewards early starts more than most cities.
The nine, in order
1St Vitus Cathedral
The national cathedral, 585 years in the building, with the crown jewels behind a door with seven locks and a Mucha window that looks like nothing else in it.
2St Nicholas Church, Malá Strana
The best Baroque interior in central Europe, an organ Mozart played, and a bell tower the secret police used to watch the embassies below.
3Church of Our Lady before Týn
The two black towers over Old Town Square. Tycho Brahe is buried inside, and the entrance is hidden in an arcade between the shops.
4The Loreta
A Baroque pilgrimage complex behind the castle with a carillon of 27 bells that plays on the hour, and a treasury containing a monstrance set with 6,222 diamonds.
5Strahov Monastery
Two of the most beautiful library halls in Europe, which you view from the doorway because the floors cannot take the traffic. The view over the city from the forecourt is free.
6Church of Our Lady Victorious
Home of the Infant Jesus of Prague, a wax figure with a wardrobe of robes, changed through the liturgical year by Carmelite nuns. Pilgrims come from Latin America and the Philippines.
7St Nicholas, Old Town Square
The other St Nicholas, and the one people walk into by mistake. Now a Hussite church, with a crystal chandelier said to be a gift from a Russian tsar.
8Basilica of St George
Inside the castle walls, and the oldest surviving church building in Prague — Romanesque, stripped back, and a complete relief after the Gothic next door.
9Vyšehrad and its cemetery
The other castle, with almost no tourists, and a cemetery holding Dvořák, Smetana, Mucha and others.
How to see them without wasting a day
The efficient route. Start at the castle at opening for St Vitus, walk down through the Loreta and Strahov, drop into Malá Strana for St Nicholas and Our Lady Victorious, cross the Charles Bridge, and finish at Týn on Old Town Square. That is a full day and about six kilometres, nearly all of it downhill.
Two of the entries here are free: the rear of St Vitus, and the forecourt at Strahov. Two more ask only a donation. The rest charge, and the only one where a pre-booked ticket genuinely saves you something is the castle, where the queue is for security rather than for the cathedral.
Tickets, passes and guided walks
If you are doing the castle and one or two paid interiors, a combined pass usually beats buying singly, and a guided walk is the only sensible way to see the interiors that keep awkward hours.
Tour and hotel links go to GetYourGuide and Booking.com. This site earns nothing from them at present — they are here because they are the quickest way to check what is actually available.
Worth the train ride
An hour east of Prague, Kutná Hora has two churches that beat most of this list: St Barbara's, built by silver miners who painted themselves at work on its walls, and the Sedlec Ossuary, where forty thousand people have been arranged into furniture. If you have a spare day, spend it there.