Prague, the Golden City, is located on the Moldova River that is dominated by Hradčany, Castle Hill, from where a thousand years of history look out across the capital of today's Czech Republic.

In the fourteenth century, Karl The Fourth, King of Bohemia and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, had Prague Castle extended in order to represent his centre of his power and also as a pilgrimage destination. A world metropolis of the Middle Ages was born.

Saint Vitus Cathedral became the spiritual centre of Bohemia and, after Rome and Constantinople, Prague was the most important metropolis in Europe. It became the cultural home of national saint, Wenceslas.

In Hradschin Square in front of the castle, begins Castle Suburban with the Archbishop's Palace and its Rococo façade, and the Schwarzenberg Palace with its sgraffito decor. Built in the course of reconstruction following the conflagration of 1541, several large palaces and magnificent noble buildings were constructed here in the early seventeenth century.

The Hradschin is the imposing centre of both past and present power and the symbolic heart of the Czech Nation.