Prague (Praha) Nové MĔsto

At 650 years of age, Nové Město (New Town) would hardly feel at home at the kiddie table. Sure, founded by Charles IV in 1348, this town might be “comparatively new.” And sure, it's got a tradition of childishly chucking its leaders from top floor windows (see New Town Hall) but you'll always find the new esconced with the old. Just look at the booming commercial center of Wenceslas Square where KFC and McDonalds share grill space with sausage vendors, the descendants of medieval butchers who hawked weiners when this square was a horse market.

It's the same story at the beautiful Franciscan Gardens at Our Lady of the Snow. The impressive chapel still holds services 650 years after the first bricks were laid, but its abbey now serves as gallery space for local artists. Then there's Saint Henry's Tower, whose 700-year-old bell still tolls the time, though the tower now houses a whiskeria, restaurant, museum, and several galleries. Frank Gehry's “Dancing House” sways next to baroque tenement buildings like a hipster skanking at a masquerade.

But ultimately Nové Město's old outcharms its new. Having escaped the facelifts that plasticized much of Old Town, Nové Město still offers travelers some authentic Czech experiences: getting lost on a crumbling street, sharing beers at an exclusively Czech-speaking bar, or eating like a king for just a few dollars.

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