Town tour

Sights, shops, restaurants – whatever you think of, Budweis offers you many opportunities how and where to spend free time. Let's have a look at the chief places you should know about.

Main sights

There are a lot of things to see in our town. Originally, Budweis used to be a royal town, that's why we have so many interesting places here.

Přemysl Otakar II. Square

The Square of Přemysl Otakar II. belongs to the largest square shaped squares in Central Europe (133×133 m). Besides, the square is lined with a system of arcades, which is definitely unique.

The Square is also special for one historical stone named Erratic Boulder (Bludný kámen). It's the one with the carved cross and is situated on the square close to the Samson Fountain. The legend says that if you stand right on the Boulder and you are a foreigner, you will get lost and never find the way back home. True or false? Just try it and you'll see…

The Samson Fountain

Samson Fountain stands right in the middle of the square. Now, there are new green and yellow lights, so you can have a nice view of Samson in the evenings. I strongly recommend the evening town to you particularly because of the houses and Fountain lighting. It makes a wonderful atmosphere. In summer music concerts take place here in the evenings.

The Town Hall

The Baroque Town Hall opposite the Fountain has four heads of a dragon and four allegoric statues. The statues personify Fairness, Bravery, Wisdom, and Caution.

Other buildings near the square are also worth noticing. You can find the signs of Renaissance, Baroque, and Gothic on these houses.

The Black Tower

It is 72 metres high. You find the Tower a few metres from Přemysl Otakar II. Square. You may look at the whole town from the top. It used to be a perfect place for suicidal people until the cages were installed there. Many people killed themselves by jumping down from the Tower.

In past the Tower served as a watchtower against the invaders and it was also a bell tower.

The admission costs 25 Czech crowns for adults and 15 crowns for children. The Tower is opened usually until 5.45 pm.

And one last thing I should mention – if you want to go on the top of the Tower, consider the number of stairs, it's not something you can do just after lunch :-)

Meat Shops

Originally, meat was sold on Přemysl Otakar II. Square, but in 1364 Charles IV. (the most significant emperor of his time, he founded many important places in Prague, such as Charles Bridge or Charles University) ordered to remove the Meat Shops away to Krajinská Street because of the horrible smell. The meat was sold there until 1899, since then it became a famous pub serving Budweiser beer.

Piarist Square

Not far from the Meat Shops, you'll get to this nice place, dominated by the former Dominican Monastery. There is also a famous coctail bar, where you can sit outside on Piarist Square in summer and watch for example a petrified frog „climbing“ to the top of the former Monastery. There's a legend about the frog. After it climbs up the roof, the end of the world will come. The frog is not moving for a very very long time, hopefully, this won't change at least in next 100 years…

South Bohemian Theatre

A white large building at the corner of Dr. Stejskala Street , most 4 minutes from Přemysl Otakar II Square, is South Bohemian Theatre. In summer, most of the performances are removed to Český Krumlov (popular tourist town in the South Bohemia), because there is open-air revolving auditorium. The performances take place in a beautiful landscape.

Once, I've been to this open-air performance and it was amazing, but you need to have good weather. Also the performances inside the theatre were fine. Check out the website.

Horse-drawn railway

It was supposed to transport goods and persons between Budweis and Linz (a town in northern Austria). The railway substituted originally projected (but never constructed) shipping canal on the Vltava and Danube rivers. Believe it or not, the transportation of people from Budweis to Linz took 14 hours! Consider it's 100 km away from Budweis, now, it would probably take one hour by car.

Today, you can visit the Museum of Horse Drawn Railway (approximately 10 minutes of walking from Přemysl Otakar II. Square).

Famous enterprises

Some of the enterprises have a long lasting tradition in Budweis. The most popular of them are breweries, which are mentioned below.

Budweiser Budvar brewery

When you think of Budweis, Budweiser beer should come to your mind firstly – it is well-known in the world. Not many people know that Budvar sues with the American brewery Anheuser Busch for the name „Budweiser“. So, don't mix up these two beers, although the name „Budweiser“ is the same.

Budweiser Budvar brewery doesn't really belong to the town centre. You'd rather take a bus to see it there.

Samson brewery

Samson is trying to compete with Budvar. For example putting the title „Budweiser Bürgerbräu“ (from German, abbreviated B.B.) on bottles is more than significant attempt to imitate Budvar :-). Samson is the oldest brewery in Budweis (established in the 18th century) – that's the only thing where Samson actually wins…

Koh-i-noor Hardmuth

It's a factory that makes, for the most part, stationery (pencils, crayons, rubbers…) and stuff like that. Koh-i-noor Hardmuth started in Vienna (the capital city of Austria) by Josef Hardtmuth in 1790. The company was relocated to Budweis in 1848.

Next: Relaxation