Žižkov Prague Guide — Pubs, Views and Local Character

Žižkov is Prague's most stubbornly authentic neighbourhood. While other districts have polished their edges for visitors, Žižkov has remained defiantly itself — a former working-class quarter with more pubs per street than most cities have in an entire district, a television tower decorated with giant crawling babies, and a population that includes a healthy mix of artists, students, old-school locals, and newcomers drawn by the relatively affordable rents and the atmosphere of a neighbourhood that does not try to impress anyone.

Named after Jan Žižka, the one-eyed Hussite military commander who never lost a battle, the district sits on a hill east of the city centre. Žižkov's identity is tied to its working-class and countercultural roots — it was the last part of Prague to receive running water, it was a stronghold of the 1989 Velvet Revolution, and its pub culture is genuinely embedded in daily life rather than performed for tourists.

We bring guests to Žižkov when they want to see the Prague that guidebooks underrepresent. This guide covers the best things to see, where to drink, and why Žižkov rewards the visitor willing to step outside the usual tourist circuit.

The Žižkov Television Tower

You cannot miss it. At 216 metres, the Žižkov TV Tower is the tallest structure in Prague, visible from nearly everywhere in the city. Designed by architect Václav Aulický and completed in 1992, it was immediately controversial — a Brutalist space-age tower rising above a neighbourhood of 19th-century tenements.

In 2000, artist David Černý added ten fibreglass sculptures of giant babies crawling up and down the tower's three pillars. The babies have no faces — their features are replaced by a barcode-like slit. They were meant to be temporary but became so identified with the tower that they are now permanent.

The observation deck at 93 metres offers 360-degree views of Prague. On clear days, you can see the Bohemian hills in every direction. The viewing platform is less crowded than the Old Town Hall tower and provides a perspective on the city that no other viewpoint can match — you see Prague's rooftops extending outward in every direction, with the castle and Petřín Hill to the west.

Insider detail: the tower also houses a small luxury hotel — a single suite built into one of the tower's pods at 70 metres. It is one of the most unusual hotel rooms in Europe. Even if you do not stay there, the observation deck visit (around 250 CZK) is worth the price for the views alone.

Vítkov Hill and the National Monument

Vítkov Hill rises steeply at the western edge of Žižkov, and its summit is crowned by one of the largest equestrian statues in the world — the monument to Jan Žižka, completed in 1950. The statue weighs 16.5 tonnes and stands 9 metres tall on a granite pedestal that dominates the skyline from below.

Beneath the statue is the National Memorial on Vítkov, a Functionalist building from the 1930s that served as a Communist-era mausoleum (the embalmed body of President Klement Gottwald was displayed here until it decomposed and had to be cremated in 1962). Today, it houses an exhibition on Czech 20th-century history, with a focus on the independence movements and the two world wars.