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hidden europe 15

Icons or eyesores

by hidden europe

Summary

Most visitors look to Prague for a feast of Gothic and baroque. But what of the city's modern architecture? Prague boasts what is probably the finest cubist interior anywhere in the world. We visit the Grand Café Orient.

hidden europe 15 / Snippet  / By hidden europe

Do you remember the reactions about ten years ago when Canadian architect Frank Gehry and his Croatian colleague Vlado Miluni? unveiled the office block known as Tancící dum (the Dancing House)? Every Prague citizen has a firm view on this postmodern riverfront pile near the Jiráskuv Bridge. The building seems to be loved and loathed in about equal measure.

Now it is another modern development that has fuelled the flames of architectural debate in Prague. The Czech Republic's foremost architect Jan Kaplický has come up with an unorthodox design for a new national library: a sort of multicoloured octopus that will soon be taking shape next to Letná Park.

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Blog post: 8 July 2025
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hidden europe 42: Railscan
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Into the hills: a Bohemian diversion

by Nicky Gardner
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Of course one can speed across Europe on sleek, fast trains. But slow trains, the kind that dawdle along branch lines, are so much more interesting. We ride a rural rail route in northern Bohemia, where fading railway stations reveal a Habsburg history. Join us on the slow train to Dolni Poustevna.

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