Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
hosts the city's largest brewery, which produces the ubiquitous Staropramen . The centre,
however, around metro Anděl , has been transformed in the past couple of decades, and is
endowed with big new glassy malls. To the west, as the suburb gains height, the tenements
give way to another of Prague's sought-after villa quarters. To the north, Smíchov borders
Malá Strana and, officially at least, takes in a considerable part of the woods of Petřín , south
of the Hladová zed'.
Downtown Smíchov , around metro Anděl, is now totally dominated by the glasshouse of
French architect Jean Nouvel's shopping complex, Zlatý Anděl , which has an angel ( an-
děl ) from Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire etched into the glass. Hidden away behind
Zlatý Anděl, up Plzeňská, is Smíchov's former synagogue (now a bookshop). Built in 1863
to serve the local wealthy Jewish business folk, it was remodelled in the 1930s in function-
alist style, and sports unusual crenellations on the roof - only the Hebrew inscription on the
ground floor gives any indication of its former use.
Staropramen Brewery
Pivovarská 9 • Daily 10am-6pm; tours in English 10am, 1pm, 4pm Fri-Wed, plus 5pm Mon & Fri •199Kč •
273 132 589, pivovary-staropramen.cz • Metro Anděl
Though brews from Pilsen take much of the limelight these days, Prague's main brewery,
Staropramen , comes a close second in the all-important Czech beer stakes. Beer was of
course brewed long before Staropramen appeared, the company building its first brewhouse
in Smíchov in 1869. It's these historical premises - not the state-of-the-art, clinical plant
next door - that are the subject of the fifty-minute tour, a fully audiovisual affair guiding
you through the brewing process and the history of the brewery, and taking in original and
mocked-up period scenes from Staropramen's hop-infused past. The tour ends, as all such
tours do, with a frothy jug of lager in the plant's own beer bar.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search