Today we will look together at the center of Pilsen, the fourth largest city in the Czech Republic, the capital of Western Bohemia.
We will walk from Americká třída across the square to Sady Pětatřicátníků, where we will get on the tram.
In coronavirus times, the streets in the center are deserted. Businesses and small shops do not work and people are not motivated to stay in the historic center. We can thus admire the repaired houses and details of the facades during the walk, which we would not even notice at other times…
We can come to Pilsen by train, for example. From the main railway station, take trolleybus no. 15, 16, 11 or 17 and get off at the Mrakodrap stop.
Here we will see the Pilsen apartment building Mrakodrap (skyscraper), or Mráček in the Pilsen region. The building was the tallest in the city at the time of its creation (1923). It was built using the advanced technique of a reinforced concrete skeleton and was designed by the well-known architect Hanuš Zápal.
From the Skyscraper, where the famous fast food is located today, we can continue along the embankment of the Radbuza River. And maybe even with a hamburger in hand :)
Behind the building of the West Bohemian Museum, which is currently closed, we enter the orchard circuit of the city. We can admire, among other things, petrified wood, araukarite. The photo is from Křižíkovy sady.
From the orchard circuit we can cross Wooden Street, the same street through which the military man Mansfeld got into the city during the Thirty Years' War, all the way to Náměstí Republiky.
The dominant feature of the square is the Cathedral of St. Bartholomew with the tallest church tower in the Czech Republic, measures 102.26 m. At present, this Gothic gem from the beginning of the fourteenth century is undergoing a complete reconstruction of the interior. This summer, it should be open to visitors and believers alike and show them its beautiful interior with massive columns.
We will go around it and take a look at Pražská Street, where tram number one and two now runs. In the background we can see the Water Tower from the sixteenth century. At present, we find a museum exhibition in it.
Today, however, we will continue to Rooseltova Street. In it we can admire historic houses and turn to the courthouse in front of the Saxon Bridge. There I met this older Cadillac model.
We can have a little dream on the corner of Sedláčkova street. Close your eyes. Would you like to live in such a historic house? It could be interesting. Maybe we would meet some of the ghosts from Pilsen's legends here. Who knows…
Our short walk ends. We go out in Sady Pětatřicátníků, where the famous barracks of the 35th Regiment used to be. Today we find only a traffic artery and a tram stop, from where we can get back to the station.
And from the train station by train to Prague and then to the airport and from there to the whole world and home, wherever you are at home.
I was happy to welcome you at my home, in Pilsen. Sometimes come see it again.
Czech summary:
