Old Town Square, Prague — Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

Old Town Square is the historic heart of Prague, a sprawling medieval marketplace that has been the centre of the city's public life since the 11th century. The square is surrounded by architectural treasures: the twin Gothic towers of the Church of Our Lady before Tyn, the Baroque St Nicholas Church, the pastel-coloured merchant houses, and the Old Town Hall with its world-famous Astronomical Clock. The Astronomical Clock (Orloj) was installed in 1410, making it one of the oldest working astronomical clocks in the world. Every hour, from 9am to 11pm, a procession of mechanical apostles appears in two windows above the clock face, while a skeleton representing Death pulls a rope and turns an hourglass. The clock shows three types of time (Central European, Old Bohemian, and Babylonian) and tracks the positions of the sun and moon. At the centre of the square stands the Jan Hus Monument, erected in 1915 on the 500th anniversary of the death of the Czech religious reformer who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1415. Hus's ideas anticipated the Protestant Reformation by a century. In June 1621, 27 Czech Protestant leaders were executed in the square after the Battle of White Mountain, one of the darkest moments in Czech history. The event is commemorated by 27 crosses embedded in the pavement near the Old Town Hall. The square is free to visit and accessible 24 hours a day. If you're on a Questo quest through Prague, the Astronomical Clock might just give you the clue you need, if you know where to look.