Prague is a great city to live in, and one of its main potentials is that it’s perfectly located in central Europe, which makes it easy to visit other countries, such as Germany, Austria or Poland.
Even though, more often than not, we don’t always have the chance to travel the whole weekend to another country, in that case a short Sunday trip in a place nearby should be more than enough to relax and enjoy your Sunday.
If you have been living in Prague for more than one year, you probably already know the most famous places around, such as Karlovy Vary, Bohemian Switzerland, Karlštejn or Olomouc.
So here you can find 10 unconventional places near Prague:
1. Červená Lhota
Červená Lhota is a Reinassance Castle surrounded by a lake situated 122 km from Prague. The peculiarity of this red castle is that is in the middle of a lake, connected to the land by a stone bridge. During the summer months, it is possible to visit 16 rooms that belonged to nobility in the 19th and 20th century, or also rent some boats to sail in the lake.
Červená Lhota is also known under the name of “The lake of fairies”. Indeed, it has often been used as a location for many movies based on fairy tales, such as Svatby pana Voka, 1970 (Mister Vok’s wedding), Zlatovláska, 1973 (Goldilocks), Princezna na hrášku, 1976 (The Princess and The Pea), O kráse a štěstí, 1986 (About Beauty and Happiness), O zatoulané princezně, 1988 (Stray Princess).
2. Máchovo jezero
Máchovo jezero or Lake Macha is the place to go if you miss the beach and the sun. It is a true tropical island surrounded by the beautiful Nordic landscape of north Bohemia. The lake is situated only 95km from Prague and connected from Hlaví Nádraží.
3. Mělník
In the middle of Bohemian countryside, only 49km from Prague, there is Mělník on a rocky promontory. This Hussite city was destroyed by the Swedish army during the Thirty Years War, but after the conflict it became an aristocratic palace and today it is possible to visit and have a wine tasting inside the castle, since Mělník is located in the heart of the wine-growing region of Bohemia.
4. Moravský kras
The “Moravian Kars” is a karsic landscape located North of Brno and is famous for its caves and amazing geological features.
5. Luková
This village – which in 1946 counted just 22 houses – is situated 188km from Prague, and is mostly famous for its sinister church from the 13th century: Saint George Church. Today, large part of the structure is dilapidated. Furthermore, according to the legend, during a funeral in 1968, part of the ceiling fell down and locals started to think that the church was cursed and it was eventually abandoned.
However, in 2012 the student Jakub Hadrava di Plzeň chose Saint George Church for its final project, entitled “My Mind”. His aim was to give life to a place that in the past was one of the most important for people’s spiritual lives and that now is completely forgotten. To do so he created 32 human-shaped sculptures which represent the Sudeten German community, who used to attend Saint George Church. The only “people” that still attend the Church.
6. Kutná Hora
This town, which is now considered a Unesco heritage site, is only 85 km away from Prague and perfectly connected by train every two hours from Prague’s main station (Hlavní nádraží). The town is divided in two parts: the Sedlec Ossuary and St. Barbara Cathedral, both well connected to Kutná Hora Station. (The Ossuary is particularly famous for its ceiling lamp done completely in bones!)
7. Ústí nad Labem
In this city there is a crumbling medieval castle which dominates the whole town beneath. Although the castle is undeniably beautiful, it is everything but famous. This town, indeed, is one of the closest to the German border and it’s an industrial, mining city with one of the highest unemployment rate of whole Czech Republic. So it’s definitely not a touristic attraction, but maybe exactly because of this reason, it has its own original charm.
8. Holašovice
This place is located 165km from Prague, but it is worth visiting because it represents the typical example of a traditional Central European village: its style is know as South Bohemian folk Baroque and because of this, Holašovice is considered a Unesco heritage site.
9. Kralupy nad Labem National Stables
The site is just 30km from Prague main station and it is connected by train and it includes fields, fenced pastures, a forested area, all projected with the main objective of breeding and training Kladruber horses, a type of horse used in ceremonies by the Habsburg imperial court. These particular stables were founded by Hasburgic Imperor Rudolf the II in 1579 and they are among the most ancient stables in the world.
