Josefov

The former Jewish quarter: six synagogues and the old cemetery

Area Josefov
Type Neighbourhood
Time needed 2h

Josefov is the former Jewish quarter of Prague, a few blocks between Staroměstské náměstí and the river named after Joseph II. Almost all of the medieval ghetto was demolished around 1900 and rebuilt in grand apartment blocks, so what survives is six synagogues, the Jewish Town Hall and the Old Jewish Cemetery standing among Art Nouveau streets. Those monuments are run as a museum on a separate combined ticket and are covered on their own pages here; this is the walk between and around them.

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Getting there

Metro Staroměstská on the A green line puts you at the western edge of the quarter, two minutes from Široká. From Staroměstské náměstí it is a five-minute walk north up Maiselova, so most people arrive on foot without planning to. Trams 17 and 18 stop at Staroměstská on the embankment. The streets are flat and paved, though the cobbles and the kerbs are uneven in places and pavements narrow sharply where tour groups gather.

What you see

Start on Maiselova by the Jewish Town Hall, with its clock whose Hebrew face runs anticlockwise, and the stepped brick gable of the Old-New Synagogue beside it, the oldest working synagogue in Europe. Walk Široká past the Pinkas Synagogue and the long wall of the Old Jewish Cemetery, which you can see over in places from the street. Pařížská runs north from the Old Town Square as a boulevard of 1900s facades and expensive shops, and ends at the river with the Letná slope ahead; it is the clearest evidence of what replaced the ghetto. Turn east for the Spanish Synagogue on Vězeňská, Moorish outside and extravagantly so inside, with Jaroslav Róna's seated figure of Franz Kafka on the corner beside it. The Church of the Holy Spirit and the Kafka monument square close the loop back towards Dušní.

What to pair it with

Staroměstské náměstí and the Astronomical Clock are five minutes south. The Rudolfinum and the embankment are at the end of Pařížská, and Charles Bridge is a ten-minute walk.

When to go

Early morning is the only time these streets are quiet, as the museum sites open later and the groups arrive with them. Midday in summer is uncomfortable on narrow pavements. The quarter closes down for Jewish holidays and on Saturdays, when the museum buildings are shut and the streets are notably calmer — useful if you only want to walk, useless if you want to go inside. Autumn light on the Pařížská facades is the best of the year.

What is hard about it

There is not very much left to see that is free: the walk is short, and the substance of the quarter is behind the paid museum sites, which need their own ticket and are the only way into the cemetery. Expect queues and bag checks at those entrances, and security presence on the streets. The commercial end of Pařížská is an unremarkable luxury shopping street. The subject matter in the Pinkas Synagogue and the cemetery is heavy, and families should decide in advance how much of it to take on.

Common questions

How long do you need in Josefov?

Half an hour to walk the streets and look at the exteriors. Allow two hours or more if you are also going into the synagogues and the cemetery, which need a separate combined ticket.

Can you see the Old Jewish Cemetery for free?

Not properly. Sections of it are visible over the wall from Široká and from a window near the Ceremonial Hall, but entry is by the museum ticket only.

Is anything open on Saturday?

The museum synagogues and cemetery are closed on Saturdays and Jewish holidays, though the streets, the shops and the restaurants are not.