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This church is revered in the Italian- and Spanish-speaking worlds thanks to a peewee-sized baby Jesus doll known as Il Bambino di Praga. The 400 year-old wax figure was gifted to the church by Polyxena of Lobkowicz, a devout Spaniard who married into the local Catholic aristocracy. Years later, when the church’s nuns were spared of an 18th-century plague that ravaged Prague, they deemed it a miracle and credited the statue. The Infant Jesus has been answering prayers ever since, as evidenced by the numerous plaques claiming phenomena big and small that hang throughout the church. The most bizarre characteristic of the Bambino is its dress collection, which includes dozens of ornate little frocks that have been presented as giftsRead more.

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Throughout summer, this landmark crossing can get so choked with pedestrians that many locals prefer to take alternative routes across the river. But not us. Despite plenty of griping, we’re in love with Charles Bridge. A walk across is a swoony stroll through a four-dimensional picture postcard; the fourth dimension being time. King Charles IV ordered this bridge to be built and, heeding court astrologers’ recommendations, the foundation stone was laid at 5:31 on the morning of July 9, 1357, a time that was considered auspicious because it corresponds to the numerical palindrome 1357 9.7 5:3.1. In the Middle Ages, people believed that truth and divinity could be deciphered from the orderliness of the heavens, which, according to the oldRead more.

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Originally built as a vineyard homestead on what was then the outskirts of Prague, the Bertramka Villa became the property of a singer named Jošefa Dušek and her pianist husband František Xaver Dušek in 1784. The couple struck-up a friendship with the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who visited them on multiple occasions. Mozart completed the score of Don Giovanni here and got help from the Duseks with the Prague productions of his operas Entführung aus dem Serail and the Marriage of Figaro. Today Bertramka is a Mozart museum displaying many of his personal possessions, including arias written in his own hand and a harpsichord on which he composed. They even have a glass cube encasing what is claimed to beRead more.