CHARLES SQUARE

Charles Square is a huge urban space that springs up almost unexpectedly. Originally designed as a cattle market and named after the great Charles IV, it is the largest square in Prague, measuring over 500 meters long and 150 meters wide. Kept as a garden, it has become a favorite public park with students from the nearby university. One side is dominated by the large Baroque building of the Jesuit college, with an ornate church dedicated to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, while the whole square is looked down upon by the tall Old Town Hall Tower, the result of blending together a number of impeccably restored fifteenth and sixteenth-century buildings.

 

An interesting fact: both Wenceslas Square and Charles Square were the site of executions. In Wenceslas Square there were two gallows, while Charles Square was reserved for the executions of nobles and clerics.