Malostranské náměstí

[1] St. Nicholas Church and the adjacent building complex divides the square in an upper (western) and lower (eastern) part.

The town hall was built in 1470, plundered and destroyed by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War and renovated in Baroque style in 1630.

After the victory of the Catholic Habsburgs in the Battle of White Mountain and the beginning of the Counter-Reformation, Emperor Ferdinand II gave the church and the adjacent buildings to the Jesuits.

Josephinism led to the departure of many government authorities to Vienna, the nobility gradually abandoned their residences on Malá Strana.

For this reason, the Lesser Town was largely spared from radical modernization during the building boom of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the ring has retained its historical shape to this day.

View from the tower of St. Nicholas Church (Malá Strana)
Lower Square, the central area: Jesuit College (now part of the University), tower and dome of St. Nicholas Church.
Upper part of the square: Liechtenstein Palace on the left, Prague Castle in the background
Lower part of the square: Smiřický and Sternberg Palaces on the left, former Malá Strana town hall on the right