The City of Magic
The atmosphere of Prague has always had something surreal about it. Ever since the sixteenth century when Emperor Rudolf II made the city a centre for magic, alchemy, cabalism and the occult, it has spawned and inspired artists and mystics all over the world. Surrealist supremo Andr� Breton himself named the city “The City of Magic,” and Franz Kafka also distilled the city in some sense in all of his work.
Visitiors of Prague can have a hard time imagining how the city was pre-1989. Gloomy streets where people waited in line for their rations of a tin of ham or a bottle of ersatz Coke and hotels with two pricelists: one for people of the Warsaw Pact nations, and one for the capitalists, the latter often 6 to 8 times as expensive.
Freedom has changed a lot of things. Apart from being historical, as always, Prague is now also entertaining and accessible. Being the only Central European capital that escaped the bombing during WWII, it�s architecture is well preserved, dating back to the late 12th century. You will notice a mixed ambience between Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, rococo and Art Noveau styles, the latter being the major one. In fact, the Czech artist Alfonse Mucha, the most imitated Art Noveau artist of all time has a museum dedicated to his works in the heart of the city.
