Prague

Prague came through the twentieth century almost untouched, and the city shows it: a thousand years of building still standing, Gothic, baroque and Art Nouveau on the same street. Prague Castle, the largest ancient castle complex in the world, holds the ridge above the river with St Vitus Cathedral at its centre, six hundred years in the making. Below it Charles Bridge, begun in 1357, carries thirty blackened baroque saints across the Vltava. The Prague Astronomical Clock has been turning out its apostles since 1410. The city keeps arguing with itself, too, in Frank Gehry's Dancing House curving on the embankment and the Lennon Wall repainted week after week. Strahov Monastery holds two of Europe's great baroque libraries, and the Prague Jewish Quarter its synagogues and stacked, tilting gravestones. Czechs drink more beer per head than anyone, poured in vaulted cellars beside goulash and dumplings.