Free Walking Tour Plzeň: Square, Cellars and Beer

Your Plzeň Walking Tour: Cathedral, Brewery and Cellars in Order

1. 1

   Republic Square

   

   Begin in the middle of Republic Square and turn slowly once around. The rectangle measures 139 by 193 metres, which makes it one of the largest squares in Europe and the largest medieval square in Bohemia outside Prague. When the town was laid out it was bigger still, roughly 200 by 145 metres, and took up a seventh of the entire city. Instead of an open market place, its centre holds a church: St. Bartholomew's Cathedral stands right in the middle.

   Look to the north-west corner for the plague column of 1681, topped by a replica of the Plzeň Madonna. The other three corners have held something much younger since 2010: three modern fountains by the architect Ondřej Císler, showing a greyhound, a camel and an angel. All three are elements of the city's coat of arms, so as you walk the square you are walking around Plzeň's heraldry.

   The houses lining the square almost all carry a name: the House at the White Rose, at the Golden Lamb, at the Black Eagle, at the White Unicorn, the Imperial House beside the town hall, the bishop's residence, the Hotel Central. Two of them are branches of the Museum of West Bohemia: the Chotěšov House holds the Ethnographic Museum of the Plzeň Region, and the burgher house at number 137 the Puppet Museum. Keep them in mind if you have a spare hour after the walk.

   The square is free and open at any hour. The J.K. Tyl Theatre is only 40 metres away, a minute on foot.

   Local name

   Náměstí Republiky

   Hours

   24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Republic Square on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   J.K. Tyl Theatre

   

   Plzeň's main theatre went up between 1899 and 1902 to a design by Antonín Balšánek. Look at the façade: the frame is Neo-Renaissance, but here and there Art Nouveau details slip in, the style that was just arriving when the building was finished. In front of it stands the statue of Josef Kajetán Tyl, the man the theatre is named after, by the sculptor Alois Soper.

   This is a busy working house, not a monument. Every year it puts on around 18 premieres across drama, opera, operetta, ballet and musicals, and since September 2014 its actors also play at the New Theatre. The repertoire stretches from Smetana's The Bartered Bride, Dvořák's Rusalka and Janáček's Jenůfa to Chicago and Monty Python's Spamalot.

   For more than three decades, from 1950 to 1983, Věra Caltová worked here as the theatre photographer, recording the productions that passed across this stage.

   Getting inside takes a little planning: guided tours run on selected days and must be booked, and otherwise a performance ticket is the way in. If you are staying the evening, a show here is the most natural way to see the auditorium. From the theatre it is 110 metres, about a minute, to the town hall.

   Local name

   Divadlo Josefa Kajetána Tyla

   Hours

   Guided tours scheduled on selected Mondays at 16:00 (booking required); Box office Mon–Fri 10:00–18:00; Performance access 1h before show

   Price

   75 - 100 Kč guided tour, performance tickets variable

   Website

   djkt.eu ↗

   Location

   J.K. Tyl Theatre on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Pilsen Town Hall

   

   The town hall at Republic Square number 1 is still the seat of the city administration and a national cultural monument. What catches your eye is the sgraffito covering the façade. Jan Koula, a professor at the Czech technical university in Prague, designed it and carried out much of it himself in September and October 1910. Pick out the figures: King John of Luxembourg, Wenceslas II, Emperor Rudolf II, and the allegories of war and peace, law, justice and truth, together with the city's coat of arms.

   Read the inscriptions too. One declares that the building was built for the service of the city. The other says that our fathers have held the greyhound from the very beginning, as the old histories tell us: the same greyhound you just saw in one of the corner fountains.

   The first town hall stood near the Chotěšov House. In the 15th century the city bought the largest house on the north side of the square, and the council had it rebuilt by the Italian Giovanni de Statia from Lugano in the style of the Italian Renaissance. It became Plzeň's first Renaissance building. The Imperial House and the Pechát House are joined to it.

   Go in: the ground-floor hall is free and serves as an exhibition space. You will find a model of the centre of Plzeň there, useful for seeing the shape of the old town before you walk it, and, unexpectedly, a suit of samurai armour. St. Bartholomew's Cathedral is right across from the entrance.

   Local name

   Plzeňská radnice

   Hours

   Mon, Wed 08:00–17:00, Tue, Thu 08:00–16:00, Fri 08:00–15:00, Sat–Sun closed

   Price

   Free admission

   Website

   plzen.eu ↗

   Location

   Pilsen Town Hall on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   St. Bartholomew's Cathedral

   

   Putting a church in the middle of a public market place was a very unusual decision, and Plzeň made it. The Gothic church was probably founded together with the city around 1295. The oldest written mention dates from 1307, when a townsman named Wolfram Zwinillinger left a malt house and a drying house to St. Bartholomew on condition that a mass be said for his soul. In a city later famous for beer, that is a fitting first record.

   Its early years were a tug of war. The church began as a branch of the Church of All Saints in Malice, today part of the Roudná neighbourhood, with the Czech king as patron of both. In 1310 King Henry handed the patronage to the Teutonic Order, but he was driven from the country that same year and the Order did not dare claim its right. It finally enforced it under King John in 1322, then won a dispute with All Saints over the presbytery in 1342. Building started with that presbytery soon after.

   The Teutonic Order remained patron until 1546, when the right passed to the city. The parish church became a cathedral only in 1993, when Pope John Paul II created the Diocese of Plzeň on 31 May, and two years later it was declared a national cultural monument.

   The interior is free and worth a few quiet minutes. The tower charges admission; buy a ticket if you want to see the square's proportions from above. Then it is 450 metres, about 6 minutes, to the Franciscan monastery.

   Local name

   Katedrála svatého Bartoloměje

   Hours

   Cathedral interior: Mon–Fri 10:00–18:00, Sat–Sun & holidays 13:00–18:00; Tower: Mon–Sun 10:00–18:30 (last entry 18:00)

   Price

   Cathedral interior free; Tower 110 Kč full, 80 Kč students/seniors, 60 Kč children 6-15, 280 Kč family

   Website

   bip.cz ↗

   Location

   St. Bartholomew's Cathedral on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Franciscan Monastery and Gardens

   

   This is one of the oldest buildings in Plzeň, and in essence it has kept its early Gothic form through the Hussite wars and the Thirty Years' War. The Minorites founded it around the time King Wenceslas II founded the city in 1295, and the complex grew south-east from the new city ramparts. Besides the monastery it includes the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the chapterhouse and the Chapel of St. Barbara.

   The oldest parts, from about 1300, are the walls of the five-sided presbytery and the eastern part of the triple nave. The vaults came bit by bit: the presbytery and nave after 1350, the eastern cloister around 1360, the rest by 1380.

   The monastery's history is a run of setbacks. The radical Hussite priest Václav Koranda had the Minorites driven out for a few months; fire damaged the buildings during the Hussite siege of Plzeň that began in 1433, and repairs took donations over the following fifty years. On the orders of Pope Pius II the Franciscans took over. The tower followed at the end of the 16th century, a Holy Trinity chapel in 1611, and in 1618 the siege by Mansfeld's army damaged the complex again. At its peak in the late 17th century, Jakub Auguston the Elder built the Chapel of St. Anthony and a new wing for novices; his nephew Jakub Auguston the Younger designed the west façade of the church between 1722 and 1724.

   Admission is charged. Inside, the Museum of Church Art of the Plzeň diocese leads you through the monastery on the trail of faith, a good choice if Gothic vaults and cloisters are your thing. The Museum of West Bohemia is 100 metres away, a minute's walk.

   Local name

   Františkánský klášter

   Hours

   Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, Mon closed (seasonal operation: April–October/November)

   Price

   60 Kč full, 30 Kč reduced, 130 Kč family

   Website

   frantiskanskyklaster.4fan.cz ↗

   Location

   Franciscan Monastery and Gardens on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Museum of West Bohemia

   

   The Neo-Renaissance building in Kopeckého sady houses one of the biggest museum institutions in the Czech Republic, with historical, applied art and natural science collections. The city council decided on a new museum building in 1888 and commissioned Josef Škorpil. Construction started in 1895, the local firm Eduard Kroh finished the shell in 1898, and the rest was done in 1899.

   Leading artists of the day decorated it. The sculptural work on the façade and the stucco in the halls follow designs by Celda Klouček, the lunettes in the jubilee hall are by the painter Augustin Němejc, and Vojtěch Šaff made the large relief of the Maidens' War. In the 1990s the whole building was reconstructed, roof trusses included, and it reopened in November 1998.

   Admission is charged, with tickets for a single permanent exhibition or a combined one. The main building shows the Plzeň City Armoury, the archaeology and history of the region, and applied arts. If time is short, choose one exhibition rather than rushing through all of them.

   From here you leave the old town behind: 740 metres, about 11 minutes, to the gates of the Pilsner Urquell Brewery.

   Local name

   Západočeské muzeum

   Hours

   Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, Mon closed

   Price

   Permanent exhibitions: single exhibition 80 Kč full / 40 Kč reduced; combined ticket all permanent exhibitions 200 Kč full / 100 Kč reduced, 320 Kč family

   Website

   zcm.cz ↗

   Location

   Museum of West Bohemia on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   Pilsner Urquell Brewery

   

   This is the longest stretch so far, and it leads to the place that put Plzeň's name on beer glasses around the world. The first Pilsner Urquell was brewed here on 4 October 1842. The city still celebrates that birthday every first weekend of October with Pilsner Fest.

   The standard tour runs 100 minutes and ends with a tasting for over-18s. It is the biggest commitment of time and money on this route, so treat it as the anchor of your day: book it, plan the walking legs around it and let everything else flex.

   If the tour is full or you would rather keep the money, the courtyard is open to anyone during opening hours at no charge, and it still gives you the scale of the place. From the brewery it is 780 metres, about 11 minutes, back towards the old town to the Pilsen Historical Underground.

   Local name

   Pivovar Plzeňský Prazdroj

   Hours

   Mon–Sun 10:00–18:00

   Price

   430 Kč standard tour

   Website

   prazdrojvisit.cz ↗

   Location

   Pilsner Urquell Brewery on Google Maps ↗

8. 8

   Pilsen Historical Underground

   

   Beneath the historic centre lies a tangle of passages, cellars two and three levels deep, and hundreds of wells. The townspeople dug it from the end of the 13th century into the 18th century, and with 13 km of passages it ranks among the largest historic underground systems in Central Europe.

   The tour circuit is almost 800 metres long and starts in the ice house. Meltwater from the ice ran down from there and cooled the cellars, where food was stored and where, in the houses with brewing rights, beer fermented and matured. In wartime the underground also sheltered the townspeople, and its passages kept them in contact. Along the way you pass wells and cisterns and reach a 16th-century waterworks by the ramparts with a replica water wheel.

   The circuit is run by Pilsner Urquell, and visits are by paid guided tour only. The original entrance on Perlová street has been moved: since 1 April 2009 you enter from the Brewery Museum building at Veleslavínova 6. That makes the next stop easy, because the Brewery Museum is in the same building.

   Local name

   Plzeňské historické podzemí

   Hours

   Mon–Sun 10:00–18:00

   Price

   250 Kč standard tour

   Website

   prazdrojvisit.cz ↗

   Location

   Pilsen Historical Underground on Google Maps ↗

9. 9

   Brewery Museum

   

   The Brewery Museum occupies a preserved 15th-century malt house at Veleslavínova 58/6. The building does half the explaining before you see the first exhibit: malting and brewing were ordinary trades on these streets for centuries before anyone thought of a global brand.

   The guided tour runs sixty minutes and ends with a tasting for over-18s. Be honest about what kind of beer person you are. This is the third beer stop in a row, and if the afternoon runs short it is the first to drop. Drop the big brewery tour instead only if industrial scale bores you, because the museum is the intimate version of the same story.

   From here the route turns to the 20th century: 720 metres, about 11 minutes, to the Patton Memorial Pilsen.

   Local name

   Pivovarské muzeum

   Hours

   Mon–Sun 10:00–18:00

   Price

   150 Kč standard tour

   Website

   prazdrojvisit.cz ↗

   Location

   Brewery Museum on Google Maps ↗

10. 10

    Patton Memorial Pilsen

    

    The Patton Memorial is permanently closed, so this is a stop you take in from outside. It occupied the Peklo cultural house at Pobřežní 10, a building with its own history: before the First World War the editorial office of Masaryk's journal Nová doba was here, and Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk lectured in the house several times.

    The memorial opened on 5 May 2005, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Plzeň and south-west Bohemia by the American army in 1945 and of the end of the Second World War in Europe. Its founder and curator, the Plzeň researcher Zdeněk Roučka, gathered more than 1,000 exhibits, mostly from private collections: photographs, newspapers, uniforms, weapons, field rations, medical kit, tools.

    The exhibition traced the last air raids on western Bohemia, the bombing of the Škoda works, the American advance through Czechoslovakia and the soldiers' stay until November 1945. Much of it honoured General George S. Patton, commander of the Third Army, and his friend General Ernest N. Harmon, who helped with materials and equipment to rebuild the ruined country. From here it is 690 metres, about 11 minutes, to the last stop.

    Status

    Permanently closed

    Website

    patton-memorial.cz ↗

    Location

    Patton Memorial Pilsen on Google Maps ↗

11. 11

    Great Synagogue

    

    The walk ends with a building that is hard to take in at once: the second largest synagogue in Europe and the third largest in the world. When it was built the Jewish community of Plzeň numbered about 2,000 people.

    Its look is the result of a quarrel. The Viennese architect Max Fleischer first drew it in Gothic style with granite buttresses and two towers 65 metres high. The cornerstone was laid on 2 December 1888, and that was about as far as it got: the city councillors rejected the plan because the towers would compete with St. Bartholomew's Cathedral. In 1890 Emmanuel Klotz kept the ground plan and the cornerstone but cut the towers by 20 metres, creating the mix of Romanesque and Renaissance Revival with Oriental decoration and a giant Star of David that you see now. Master builder Rudolf Štech completed it in 1893 for 162,138 florins.

    Inside, the mixture of styles is bewildering: onion domes like a Russian Orthodox church, an Arabic-style ceiling, a Torah ark that looks distinctly Indian. The synagogue was in use until the Nazi occupation; serving as a warehouse during the war saved it from destruction, but the community that reclaimed it had been decimated by the Holocaust. The last regular service under communist rule was held in 1973, and the building fell into disrepair.

    Restoration ran from 1995 to 1998, it reopened on 11 February 1998, and the interiors were renovated again between 2019 and 2022. Today it is used again by the local Jewish Community, the central hall hosts concerts and the walls exhibitions. Admission is charged and it is worth every minute, especially if architecture interests you. If you want to return to Republic Square, the GPS navigation in your browser leads you back.

    Local name

    Velká synagoga

    Hours

    Sun–Thu 10:00–17:00, Fri–Sat closed

    Price

    140 Kč regular, 110 Kč seniors/students/ZTP, free under 10, 350 Kč family

    Website

    zoplzen.cz ↗

    Location

    Great Synagogue on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways Through Plzeň

The route splits naturally into an old town half and a beer half, so you can walk one today and keep the other for later.

Old town in a morning

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

For a first look at Plzeň or a short stopover. About 10 minutes of walking in total, from Republic Square to the Museum of West Bohemia. The town hall's hall and the cathedral interior are free; the cathedral tower, the Franciscan monastery and the museum charge admission, and the theatre can only be visited on a booked tour or with a performance ticket.

Beer and cellars

Stops: 7, 8, 9

For anyone who came to Plzeň for its beer. About 12 minutes of walking: 11 minutes from the brewery gates to the underground, then a minute to the Brewery Museum in the same building. All three are paid guided tours, so this half fills an afternoon; book the brewery tour first and fit the other two around it.

How Long Does the Plzeň Tour Take with Brewery and Cellars?

The legs add up to 3.6 km and 52 minutes of walking. The first six stops sit close together: from Republic Square to the Museum of West Bohemia you walk barely ten minutes. After that the legs grow to about 11 minutes each: out to the brewery, back to the underground, on to the Patton Memorial and finally to the synagogue.

Walked with outside looks plus the free cathedral interior and the town hall's hall, the whole route takes around two and a half hours. The paid interiors change everything: the brewery tour alone runs 100 minutes and the Brewery Museum tour 60 minutes, so with the underground, the synagogue and one museum you are looking at a full day. The old town half fits into about two hours with its interiors; the beer half takes an afternoon.

Before You Set Off in Plzeň

• Start: Republic Square is the recommended start, and the order of the stops follows the most sensible line through town. You can still join at any stop.
• Finish: The walk ends at the Great Synagogue. If you want to return to Republic Square, the GPS navigation in your browser leads you back.
• Time of day: Start in the morning. The old town goes quickly, while the brewery, underground and Brewery Museum tours need most of the afternoon.
• Admission: Free: Republic Square, the town hall's ground-floor hall and the cathedral interior. Paid: the cathedral tower, the Franciscan monastery, the Museum of West Bohemia, the brewery, underground and Brewery Museum tours and the Great Synagogue. Theatre tours need booking, and the Patton Memorial is closed.
• Booking: Book the Pilsner Urquell Brewery tour ahead and plan the walking legs around it; everything else can flex.

Common Questions about Plzeň