Prague’s grandest Art Nouveau building, and one you can walk into for the price of a coffee.
What it costs
The café and the restaurant are open to anyone. You can sit under the chandeliers and the stained glass and pay for a coffee rather than a ticket, which is the cheapest way into a building of this quality anywhere in the city centre.
The interiors are another matter. Smetana Hall and the decorated rooms above are seen on a guided tour, sold at the building’s own box office â or, if the programme suits you, by buying a concert ticket, which puts you inside the hall for the evening.
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When to go
The café keeps café hours and is busiest at lunch. Tours run on a fixed daily schedule with limited places, so they are worth arranging in advance rather than turning up for.
Getting there
Metro B to NĂĄmÄstĂ Republiky, next to the Powder Tower.
If you only have an hour
Sit in the cafĂ©. That is the whole recommendation. You get the glass, the light fittings and the room for the price of a coffee, without a tour and without booking. If a tour is running while you are there and has places, take it â the Mayor’s Hall is the part you cannot see any other way.
What people get wrong
Everything about it is deliberate: it was built between 1905 and 1912 as a Czech civic statement, and Alfons Mucha decorated the Lord Mayor’s Hall. In 1918 Czechoslovak independence was declared in this building.
Nearby
Ticketing arrangements and opening patterns as published for 2026 and checked on 4 September 2026. These change without much warning â confirm with the site itself before you travel. More sights, and how they fit together, in Landmarks & Sights.