MALA STRANA, Strahov Monastery

The upper part of the Malà Strana neighborhood reaches its peak on Strahov Hill, where the beautiful views amid vineyards and areas of woodland make you feel as if you’ve left the city well behind.

At the top of Strahov Hill is the Monastery of the same name, founded by the Premonstratensian Order around 1140, a place of meditation and contemplation, surrounded by silence. Almost completely rebuilt between the 17th and 18th centuries, it was one of the leading cultural and study centers of Baroque Europe.

The complex appears as a temple to faith and knowledge, organized around a central courtyard that can be entered through an arch-shaped passageway.

In this courtyard, which looks more like the square of an attractive, independent village, is the Church of Saint Roch, which Rudolf II had built in 1602 to give thanks for the end of a plague epidemic, and which is now used as a venue for art exhibitions. Also in the courtyard is the large Basilica of the Assumption, of Romanesque origin but featuring Baroque statues, stucco work and paintings from the early 18th century....