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This pink stucco palace and the John Lennon Wall are separated by only a few steps, but they are miles apart aesthetically. However, the French Ambassador helped preserve the graffiti opposite his offices in the 1980s.

For almost all visitors to Prague, this spectacular Gothic bridge, crossing the Vltava from the Old Town to the castle complex, remains their most memorable image of the city, long after they have returned home.

More popularly known as the Church of the Infant Jesus of Prague, Prague’s first Baroque church (1611) got its name – and its Catholic outlook – after the Battle of White Mountain. Visitors stream in to the church to see the miracle-working statue of the Christ Child.

Prague hippies and the secret police once waged a long-running paint battle here, as the latter constantly tried to eradicate the graffiti artists’ work. The original artwork, created by a Mexican student after Lennon’s assassination, has been painted over many times (see Czech Hippies Painted the John Lennon Wall), but the so-called John Lennon Peace Club still gathers annually at this self-made shrine to sing the former Beatle’s songs and praises.

The Yugoslav Embassy sat quietly in its pink and yellow stucco for more than 300 years until war made it a popular spot for protests.

Originally several houses, Lichtenstein Palace fused in the 16th century. Today, it is home to Prague’s Academy of Music and numerous concerts and recitals.

Home to the German Embassy; in 1989 hundreds of East Germans found their way to the West by scrambling over the embassy’s back fence.

The Knights of Malta once had an autonomous settlement here, and the square still bears their name. The area is dominated by beautiful Baroque palaces, and the 12th-century Church of Our Lady Below the Chain – so called for the Marian portrait inside that hangs beneath chains from the Judith Bridge, the precursor to Charles Bridge.