CENTRAL SQUARE (NÁMĚSTÍ PŘEMYSLA OTOKARA II)

The jewel in the crown of the city is the beautiful and huge central square. In the center of the square stands the high Samson Fountain (Samsonova kašna), built in 1727 in the purest Baroque style to supply the city with water from the nearby Vltava. Around the square are 48 beautiful late Gothic and Renaissance bourgeois houses with arches. An enchantment of forms and colors that further enhances the square and makes the inhabitants proud. Among them, one can easily recognize, thanks to its three towers and its coats of arms, the town hall (radnice - 1555) of Renaissance style, restored in baroque. Its facade is decorated with bronze gargoyles, coats of arms and various bas-reliefs (by Martinelli - 1731) that you can detail at your leisure. Between the towers, statues symbolize the bourgeois virtues of the time: courage, prudence, justice and wisdom. The pretty little St. Nicholas Cathedral (katedrála Sv. Mikuláše), built in the 13th century and enlarged in the 17th and 18th centuries, also overlooks the square. The fountain, the pavement, the arcades, are, of course, the meeting place of the city, a large open stage. Finally, you should not forget to visit the Budvar brewery (see box) and, in the summer, it is hard not to have a beer and a sausage in the parks along the canals and rivers that surround the old center. You will find all the inhabitants there..