Olomouc Day Trip from Prague — The Czech City Rick Steves Loves

Rick Steves once called Olomouc his favourite Czech city after Prague, and the recommendation stuck. Travellers who make the journey east discover something Prague can't offer — a university city of genuine grandeur with almost no international tourism. The square is enormous, the Baroque fountains are UNESCO-listed, the astronomical clock is stranger than Prague's, and you can sit in a café on the main plaza without a single tour group in sight.

Olomouc was the historic capital of Moravia and, for centuries, rivalled Prague in political and cultural significance. It still has the architecture to prove it, though the crowds went elsewhere. That's exactly the point.

What to See

Horní Náměstí and the Holy Trinity Column

Horní náměstí (Upper Square) is one of the largest town squares in the Czech Republic. At its centre stands the Holy Trinity Column — a 35-metre Baroque plague column listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. The column took 38 years to build (1716 to 1754) and contains a chapel inside its base. The sculptural complexity — saints, angels, clouds — ranks it among the finest Baroque monuments in Central Europe.

The square is surrounded by pastel-coloured burgher houses and features six Baroque fountains, each depicting a different mythological figure: Hercules, Mercury, Triton, Neptune, Jupiter and Caesar. All six were built in the 17th and 18th centuries as the city's water supply — functional infrastructure made beautiful.

Insider detail: Olomouc's astronomical clock is embedded in the wall of the Town Hall on Horní náměstí. Unlike Prague's medieval clock, this one was rebuilt in the 1950s in Socialist Realist style — instead of apostles and saints, the figures represent workers, scientists and athletes. It is wonderfully bizarre and completely unique. The clock performs at noon.

St. Wenceslas Cathedral

Katedrála sv. Václava dominates the skyline with its 100-metre Neo-Gothic spire — the tallest church tower in Moravia. The cathedral has Romanesque foundations, Gothic structure and a 19th-century tower. Inside, the crypt preserves Romanesque stonework from the original 12th-century church.

The cathedral is where Bohemian kings were traditionally crowned during the Moravian chapters of their reign. Several are buried in the crypt.

Archdiocesan Museum

The Archdiocesan Museum (Arcidiecézní muzeum) occupies the former Premonstratensian monastery at Denisova street. Designed by Czech architect Josef Pleskot, the museum blends medieval stone walls with contemporary glass and steel in one of the country's finest museum conversions. The collections span 1,000 years of Moravian religious art — Romanesque sculpture, Gothic panel paintings and Baroque liturgical objects.

Insider detail: The museum's courtyard offers an unexpected view: a section of the original Romanesque palace wall, excavated and left exposed under a glass walkway. You're standing above 12th-century stonework that was underground until the renovation uncovered it.