Visiting the Jewish Quarter of Prague on a virtual walking tour
Photo courtesy of CzechTourism
An honest review of my experience with Prague City Adventures on a virtual tour of the Old Town of Prague
Disclosure: I attended this tour with Prague City Adventures as a guest of CzechTourism.
I remember arriving in Prague for the first time on the train from Austria as a 19 year old backpacker after finishing a study abroad program in Graz. I had heard so much about this romantic, historic city after several weeks of studying the legacy of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and it was amazing to visit the city in person and wander over the famous Charles Bridge and take in the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque era architectural highlights.
Ten years later, in the spring of 2021, I had the chance to attend a virtual tour hosted by Prague City Adventures and CzechTourism. I was able to join the tour right from my home in Canada and follow along as our well-informed guide, Nikola, took us on a live-streamed adventure through the streets of the Old Town of Prague, with a focus on the Jewish Quarter.
You can read a detailed summary of all the experiences I had with Prague City Adventures on a guided tour of the Jewish Quarter or jump straight to my final recommendation at the end.
Go to final recommendation
Keep reading to find out what we did on this guided tour of the Jewish quarter in the Old Town of Prague.
Quick Overview of the Prague City Adventures virtual walking tour of the Prague Jewish Quarter
Destinations: This tour focused on the Jewish Quarter, a limited area within the Old City of Prague, which is known for having one of the best-preserved complexes of buildings significant to the Jewish community in Europe, and includes six synagogues and a Jewish cemetery.
How long was the tour: This guided virtual walking tour of Prague lasted about 1 hour.
Who was the guide: This tour of Prague had one guide. She was easy to understand, very well informed and professional and provided facts and commentary in a respectful way about the history of the Jewish Quarter of Prague and the people who lived there.
How did we travel: This informative virtual tour took place entirely online so there was no need to leave home, however Prague City Adventures also offers in-person walking tours where you can explore the city on foot with a professional guide.
When did I take this tour: April 2021.
Photos from the virtual tour of the Old Town in Prague
How does a virtual tour work?
This tour was live streamed from the streets of Prague by our tour guide, Nikola, who led us around and provided video and live commentary of the sites we were viewing. The sound quality was quite good and I didn’t notice any issues with traffic noise, I could clearly hear the guide and see what was happening. The visual quality was fairly good and I could appreciate small details and architectural elements the guide pointed out.
She also often supplemented the commentary with pictures and other materials shared to the screen so that we could get even more historical context for the places we visited. I enjoyed viewing this tour on my laptop but a phone would work as well. There was also an interactive component where we could type questions in the chat for the guide to answer.
The guide mentioned that she had taken a special course on the subject matter and seemed very professional and well-informed and prepared to answer questions from visitors.
The pre-departure information and communication was adequate, I had no issues logging on and connecting with the tour group at the specific start time.
Photos from the virtual tour of the Jewish Quarter in Prague
Prague virtual tour itinerary
This tour of the Jewish Quarter in Prague focused on six synagogues, a Jewish cemetery, several sites of importance from the Second World War and finished around sunset overlooking the Charles Bridge. This part of Prague has historically been home to one of Europe’s oldest Jewish communities and our guide shared the sad history of how much of the Jewish population in this area lost their lives during the Holocaust. She also shared several stories of interesting or heroic figures and their contributions to the community during the difficult times of the 20th century.
Photos courtesy of CzechTourism
Important sites in the Prague Jewish Quarter
The tour stopped by several sites from a variety of time periods, each with different architectural features and of significance to the Prague Jewish community. Many of these sites are today part of the Jewish Museum in Prague and host permanent educational exhibitions.
The Old New Synagogue is a medieval-gothic style building and is Europe’s oldest active synagogue and one of Prague’s first Gothic buildings.
The Pinkas Synagogue is the second oldest surviving synagogue in Europe and today commemorates victims of the Holocaust in partnership with the Jewish Museum in Prague.
The Maisel Synagogue is a neo-gothic style building which stands as a historical monument and currently houses exhibitions and collections from the Jewish Museum in Prague.
The Klausen Synagogue is the largest in the Prague Jewish Quarter and an example of early Baroque design which today is home to a permanent exhibition on Jewish customs and traditions as part of the Jewish Museum in Prague.
The distinctive Spanish Synagogue is the newest of the synagogues we visited, and was designed in the Moorish Revival Style. It is currently home to an exhibition on the modern history of Jews in the Czech Republic, again as part of the Jewish Museum in Prague. It may remind visitors of a similar style architecture found in southern Spain.
The Old Jewish Cemetery, which is as the name suggests, one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Europe and is located between the Pinkas Synagogue and the Klausen Synagogue.
Photos taken during the virtual tour with Prague City Adventures
Important historical figures
The tour guide also provided history and context for some historical figures who had a significant relationship with the Jewish community of Prague during the Second World War and she also mentioned some initiatives to commemerate victims of persecution.
Friedl Dicker-Brandeis was an artist and educator who provided art and drawing classes to children living in terrible conditions in the Theresienstadt (Terezin) concentration camp north of Prague. She sadly lost her life during the Holocaust, and thousands of drawings she saved from her classes are now part of the collection of the Jewish Museum in Prague.
Sir Nicholas Winton was a British banker and humanitarian who helped to organize the rescue of several hundred children from what was then Czechslovakia at the outbreak of the Second World War. Due to his efforts, 669 children arrived safely in Britain.
Gunter Demnig is a German artist known for his work creating small commemorative sculptures set into the street pavement called ‘Stumbling Stones’ or ‘Stolperstein’ which serve as memorials to victims of Nazi persecution. These brass plaques are about the size of a cobblestone and can now be found all across Europe, as part of the world’s largest memorial project.
The Prague City Adventures virtual tour ended around sunset overlooking the medieval stone-arch Charles Bridge, which crosses the Vltava Riverand connects the Old Town to Prague Castle.
Final Recommendation:
Prague City Adventures tour review
Overall, I thought this virtual tour experience with Prague City Adventures was very informative. A lot of the subject matter was very serious and the guide was very thoughtful and respectful in her approach to sharing the history and stories from the Jewish Quarter of the City. She was easy to understand and very well prepared with extra materials like illustrations and pictures to help bring stories to life.
I can only image that an in person experience would be even more meaningful, especially for travellers who have a personal connection to this subject material. However, taking a virtual walking tour of the Jewish Quarter in Prague really helped me to better understand the context of several buildings and important sites I had seen on my previous visit to the city and left me feeling better informed about such a serious and important topic in Czech history.
Prague City Adventures offers both in person and virtual tours as of 2021. They provide tours on a variety of themes and subjects such as food, Christmas markets, Communism, the history of the Charles Bridge and other topics of interest to visitors, you can learn more on the Prague City Adventures website here.
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On this 1 hour virtual walking tour of the Jewish Quarter in the Old Town of Prague, we learned about history, architecture and important figures and events of the Second World War from a professional guide. Find out if I recommend this guided history tour with Prague City Adventures in Prague.