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Under Communism, it was playhouses such as this that gave vent to dissident thought. By staging daring works, they helped draw world attention to events such as the outspoken young playwright Václav Havel continually getting in trouble with the law.

Even with the special effects, Prague’s skyline and Charles Bridge are easily recognizable in this sword-and-sorcery epic of 2000.

The English charlatans gained Rudolph II’s trust by converting lead into gold, but were more interested in necromancy.

“The Locomotive” (1922– 2000) won three long-distance gold medals at the 1952 Olympic Games.

The Franciscans moved into this area near Wenceslas Square in 1603, reclaiming the former Carmelite monastery. The grounds and nearby Church of Our Lady of the Snow had fallen into decay following the Hussite civil war, but the monks beautifully restored them. The gardens remained closed to the public until 1950, when the Communists thought they were worth sharing. Although there’s little love lost for the dictatorship of the proletariat, the gardens remain popular with young kissing couples and pigeon-feeding pensioners.

Prague’s best-known author (1883–1924) was largely unpublished in his lifetime.

Although he wrote in German and almost none of his work was published in his lifetime, Franz Kafka is Prague. Many of his disturbing novels seem to foresee the Communist years. His peripatetic wanderings across this city, brooding features and death by tuberculosis all add to the mystique.

The Hughes brothers turned Saská Alley near Charles Bridge and other Malá Strana locations into Jack the Ripper’s foggy London in 2001. Off-screen, Johnny Depp retreated to the smoky depths of the Blue Light bar on Josefská.

With his 1893 ninth symphony, Dvořák incorporated the style of black folk songs.

Deitch was a little-known animator before he took a job producing films in Communist Czechoslovakia. He fell in love with the city and stayed.