Old Town and Jewish Quarter Guided Walking Tour Prague

Josefov, the Jewish Quarter from the outside

Josefov is the former Jewish Town of Prague, a small district between Old Town Square and the river where Jews lived from the Middle Ages, first behind ghetto walls and later, after the reforms of Emperor Joseph II who gave the quarter its name, as citizens of the city. Around 1900 most of the crowded lanes were demolished and replaced by elegant Art Nouveau apartment blocks, so today the quarter is a mix of grand boulevards and the medieval monuments that survived.

Your guide leads you past the Maisel Synagogue, the Pinkas Synagogue and the High Synagogue, explaining what each one is and what it holds, so that if you decide to go inside later you know exactly what to look for. This Josefov guided walk keeps to the streets, which makes it quick and suitable for a first afternoon in Prague.

Old-New Synagogue and the Jewish Town Hall

The heart of the quarter is the Old-New Synagogue, built around 1270 and the oldest synagogue in Europe still used for services. From the street you see its steep brick gable and the small windows of the early Gothic hall, and your guide tells the legend of the Golem, the clay guardian of the ghetto said to rest in its attic. Beside it stands the Jewish Town Hall with its two clocks, one with Roman numerals and one with Hebrew letters whose hands run anticlockwise.

The guide also points out the Spanish Synagogue a few streets away, with the most decorated interior in Prague, and explains how the sites are run and ticketed today, which saves time if you plan to visit them on your own. The Old-New Synagogue and the Town Hall are the most photographed corner of Josefov, and the afternoon light on the gable is good for pictures.

Old Jewish Cemetery

The Old Jewish Cemetery lies behind a wall between the Pinkas and Klausen synagogues. It was used from the first half of the fifteenth century until 1787, and because the community could not expand it, the dead were buried in layers; the thousands of tombstones you glimpse over the wall and through the gate lean against each other at every angle under old trees.

Your guide explains the history of the cemetery, the symbols carved on the stones and the story of the rabbi whose grave attracts visitors from all over the world. Standing outside takes about ten minutes, and the guide tells you how to enter later with a Jewish Museum ticket if you want to walk among the stones. The cemetery and the synagogues are closed on Saturdays, but the exterior walk runs every day.

The lanes of the Old Town

From Josefov the walk crosses into the Old Town, the district that grew around the market square from the tenth century. The guide follows the quieter lanes rather than the main tourist streets, past houses marked with signs instead of numbers, hidden courtyards, the Gothic facade of the Church of St. James with its tale of the thief's hand and the medieval houses that still line the way to the square.

These 45 minutes are about reading the facades: Romanesque cellars, Gothic arches, Renaissance sgraffito and baroque gables often stacked on the same building. This is what people mean when they look for a Prague history walk: a licensed guide who shows how seven centuries sit on top of each other in a few hundred metres.

Old Town Square and the Astronomical Clock

The tour reaches Old Town Square, the historic heart of Prague since the twelfth century, with the twin spires of the Týn Church, the baroque St. Nicholas Church, the painted facades of the merchant houses and the Old Town Hall with its tower. Your guide explains the events the square has witnessed, from royal processions to executions marked by crosses in the pavement.

On the hall's wall is the Astronomical Clock of 1410, and the guide decodes its astronomical dial, calendar plate and the figures that move when the hour strikes, including the skeleton that rings the bell. From the square the group walks the four minutes back to Maiselova 5, where the tour ends at about 15:15, leaving the rest of the afternoon for the Old Town Hall tower or the interiors you have just learned about.