For national Czech history don't go to the National Museum at the top of Wenceslas Square. The building is beautiful but the collection has just been shut for at least four years for extensive and long-overdue updating.
Instead, go to the National Museum site at the Vitkov Memorial in Zizkov. This site is home to one of the biggest equestrian statues in the world and a very interesting exhibition about 20th century Czech history.
A steep climb to the top is rewarded by a great view over the city, from the roof-top viewing platform or the very good café.

www.nm.cz/
U Památníku 1900, 130 00 Praha 3
+420 222 781 676

November 2011 untill March 2012:
Monday–Wednesday: CLOSED
Thursday–Sunday: 10 AM–6 PM
Google map: bit.ly/vukUJR

* Helen is our Been there local for Prague. Her page is here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/articles/prague-local-helen-ford.jsp and she has her own blog here: czechingin.wordpress.com/

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What better way to view an excellent collection of modern art than in an iconic modernist building? Prague’s impressive Veletrzni Palac was built as an exhibition venue in the 1920s to showcase Czech industrial achievements, and the building itself is a real work of art in its own right. Today it is the Czech National Gallery of 'Art of the 20th and 21st Centuries'. Stand in the huge and lofty central atrium and let your eyes wander upwards to the tiers of galleries above you – it is said that even Le Corbusier was taken aback by the sheer scale, proportion and simplicity of the structure. Move onwards and upwards to the fine permanent collections of European and Czech modern art. There are works by Picasso, Rodin, Rouseau, Van Goch and the like, plus pieces by less well-known Czech artists of that era. If you love art you will not be disappointed. Then, if time allows, there will always be the current temporary shows of work by today's artists. Refreshingly, the Veletrzni Palac is situated off Prague’s well-trodden tourist trail but only minutes from the centre via the city’s efficient public transport network.

Dukelských hrdinů 530/45, 170 00 Praha 7, Czech Republic
+420 224 301 024
www.ngprague.cz/en/
Google map: bit.ly/hvhdni

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A true gem in the city, the Kafka museum offers a fresh and meaningful perspective into the life of this famous writer. It contains all first editions of Kafka’s books as well as letters, diary entries, and photographs all of which are of enormous interest to the Kafka fan. There are also some audiovisual works and music that is composed for the exhibition and definitely worth the visit. Admission is a mere 120Kc ($5.70/£2.85) for adults and it is conveniently open everyday.

Cihelná 2, Prague 1
+420 221 451 400

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Prague Jewish quarter is one of the most popular areas of Prague. There are several kosher restaurants, Prague Jewish community, apartments with kosher breakfast and you can also have a very interesting tour of Jewish Prague. Prague Jewish museum is one of the most visited museums in Prague. Probably the most famous places are the Old new synagogue (the Maharal shul) and Old Jewish cemetery with all the known Rabbis from Prague Jewish history.

Jewish Prague
www.kosherprague.com/
www.jewishprague.cz/
www.jewishprague.info/
Josefov, Old town of Prague
nearest metro station: Staromestska
Tel: +420-731-108-744
Email: info@kosherprague.com

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Lovely old building with a fine collection of glass, silver, china, etc.

Listopadu 2
www.upm.cz/index.php?page=108&language=en

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An orthodox church where the team who assassinated Heydrich made their last stand. A museum dedicated to the Nazi occupation, the plot to kill Heydrich and the brutal reprisals that followed is now located in the crypt where the assassins met their end. If you have any interest in this period of history then this museum is fascinating and very cheap. There is a plaque dedicated to the memory of the dead parachutists above the crypt window on Resslova, poignantly surrounded by bullet holes.

Resslova, New Town, between Karlova Nam and Jiraskuv Bridge. Nearest metro: Karlovo Namesti

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Out-of-town must, if you have more than a couple of days in Prague. This fortified 18th century town was used by the Nazis as a "model Jewish town" - a transit camp for thousands. It's a strange, fascinating place, oddly empty though a good many people have lived there since the war. Good museum includes a film made to fool the Red Cross, showing happy smiling people. The few communist-style shops evoke that era too. Very well worth a visit.

About an hour's bus ride from Prague, you can get a bus from the Florenc bus terminal; www.pamatnik-terezin.cz

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Restoration of old gallery after floods. Sits on river bank and has strange sculptures in courtyard and modern arcitectural bits added to old building.

Don't know its name but its towards the south end of Kampa island right on river bank.

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Modern and contemporary Central European art from a private collection of Meda Mladkova, including a large number of Kupka's paintings, Gutfreund's sculptures and one huge wooden chair in the river outside the museum. Walk there down the Vltava riverbank, called Kampa, which is a picturesque part of Prague.

U Sovových mlýnů 2, Praha 1 www.museumkampa.cz
nearest tram station: Hellichova
nearest tube station: Malostranska

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Somewhere hidden behind or around the castle but I'm damned if I can be more specific is a hilarious and unadvertised museum of handmade miniature objects. Some loony hirsute Russian chappie made them and they include a tiny foil choo-choo mounted on a hair, a horseshoe and locket attached to a flea, a picture of Jesus on a seasme seed, and a 3-D model of the Tour Eiffel on a bisected cherry stone. Among other delights. You amble around peering through magnifiers and are quite simply left agog. There was noone else in there at all the day I went (high season, the old town was thick with tourists) and it does not seem to feature on any of the brochures. Perhaps I'm making it up. But, I'm not. Sorry this is so vague, but I thought it worth posting even so, as in retrospect it was a true highlight.

www.prague.net/museum-of-miniatures

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Prague is a city of great beauty, but was also Kafka's prison. For anyone interested in the artistic backcloth to the city it is a must-see. This atmospheric museum is highly imaginative in exploring and presenting the biography and psyche of the man. It is a unique record of a unique sensibility - worth an hour, with a good shop at the end - after which you can chill out with a beer and some goulash in one of the many nearby restaurants.

Hergetova Cihelna, Prague 1. Look down to your left as you begin to cross Charles Bridge coming from Mala Strana and you'll see a big sign for it.

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Alphonse Mucha (1860 - 1939) achieved international fame as a master of Art Nouveau, the decorative style of sensuous and opulent decoration that captured the fin-de-siecle world but was rapidly supplanted by the harsher vision of modernism. His poster art remains familiar over sixty years after his death, but the work he considered his masterpiece is sadly neglected.

The Mucha museum houses one hundred or so of his works. The 'Slav Epic' series however is now on public display in the Czech village Moravský Krumlov - for this worthwhile (90 minute) trip you'll need either a map and a hire car or a helpful train enquiries desk.

www.slav-epic.org.uk

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National gallery of modern art on several floors in restored inter-war building. Each floor is vast around central atrium. Almost no-one there when we visited in April. You can pay by the the floor. Interesing range of artists, with emphasis on Czech.

Dukelskych hrdinu, north of river near Letna
tram routes 5,12,14,15 and 17

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Best place to eye loads of old Soviet-era tat. Understandably, the text that accompanies the displays is not overly favourable to Marxism-Leninism but this is a superb peek behind the Iron Curtain. Highlight is the agricultural propaganda poster claiming "Manuring the hayfields is the greatest amelioration!"

Na Prikope 10, near Mustek station. Go through the arch by McDonalds (love the irony) and the entrance is on your right and up the stairs.

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History of Barbie. Excellent 1hr museum off out of the sun, cheap and perfect breaf from the tourist scuttling passed outside. See the slightly scary history of the worlds most famous doll.

Small old building down the hill from Cathedral & Basillica towards river

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Eight permanent expositions including time-measuring techniques, transportation (trains, historical cars and planes), photography and film, acoustics, astronomy and telecommunications.

Kostelní 42, Prague 7;
Take tram 1, 8, 25 or 26 to Letenské náměstí
Open: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., closed on Mondays;
Admission: Full 70 Kč/reduced 30 Kč; free every first Friday of the month from 12 noon.
www.ntm.cz

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It doesn't nestle in quite as closely with many of Prague's other attractions, but it is well signposted once you get to the vicinity on foot or by tram. The villa is called Bertramka, and was a 17th century farmhouse, though it doesn't now look at all rural, and housed Mozart while he was working on Don Giovanni. He didn't stay for long, but the house has acquired one of his pianos and various other memorabilia.

Mozartova St 169 150 00 Tel: +420 257 31 74 65 www.bertramka.cz (has a good location map)

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