Czechia · Old Town
Pilsen
A self-guided walking tour of the Pilsen Old Town, every street in one day.
Every street on the menu.
Every street in the Old Town of Pilsen is a line of dots you collect by walking it. I have been lying in one of them for six hundred years and I am still not finished.
At a glance
Plan your walk.
- Distance
- 7.8 km
- Time
- about 2 hours
- Streets
- 23
- Steps
- 1 street with steps
- Start point
- svatý Bartoloměj
- Phone needed while walking
- no
- Works offline
- yes
- Expires
- never
The Old Town
Every street, drawn.
Every lane inside that line is a course. The circles are fruit.
Landmarks
What I would eat first.
Landmarks are fruit. The bigger the sight, the bigger the bonus.
svatý Bartoloměj 1,500 points
The big church in the middle of the square, with a tower you can see from almost anywhere in the Old Town. Walk up to it, then walk slowly around it. Something small on it gets more attention than the whole tower. What, I keep to myself.
Františkánský klášter 500 points
A monastery inside the Old Town, and the quietest address I have tasted. The town tells a legend about how it chose where to stand, and the legend ends in here. Where, I keep to myself.
Knihovna města Plzně 500 points
A proud old building where the town now lends out what it reads. Look at the front from the pavement: it was built to impress, and it still does. Behind it, something spent years out of sight. What, I keep to myself.
Měšťanská beseda 500 points
The town's grand hall for balls, concerts and long evenings. Read the façade from the top before you go in: it has something to say, in gold. Then look at eye level. Who is waiting there, I keep to myself.
Gerlachovský dům 250 points
A town house with an entrance worth stopping for. Look at it for a while and something about it seems off. I looked for a few centuries, which is how I look at everything. What, I keep to myself.
hradební zeď 250 points
The town wall, or the pieces of it that stayed. The rest came down long ago and the gardens moved in. Walk the green ring and look for what is left. Old wall is my favourite kind of crust.
Krajský soud v Plzni 250 points
A big building for serious business: this is where the town settles its arguments. Walk all the way around it. Behind the paperwork, something far older than the paperwork is still standing. Older things are chewier.
Pivovarské muzeum v Plzni 250 points
An old burgher house that has been about brewing for a very long time, and it goes deeper than it looks. Much deeper. I respect a house with more below it than above it.
Eating
Actual food.
Plzeň has no single famous plate, and hunting for one misses the point. This is West Bohemian potato country. The potato gets mixed with cabbage and cracklings, fried flat, baked, and the cabbage beside it is fermented in wooden vats on the edge of town. A whole cuisine built on a thing that grows underground. I feel seen.
With meat
One dish, on purpose. The region's other meat classics either lean on an ingredient this list leaves out, or could not be confirmed by three separate sources.
Machout (šláchorec)
Potatoes, chopped cabbage and pork cracklings, mixed into one plate. Around Plzeň it also goes by šláchorec. Two names, one bowl, no leftovers.
Sources: Novinky.cz, Speciality z Plzeňska, Recepty.cz Magazín, Dobroty z Plzeňska, Prima Fresh, Staročeský machout z Plzeňska
Vegetarian
Vošouch
The Plzeň word for a potato pancake, served with sauerkraut. Same pancake as elsewhere in the country. Better name.
Ask what fat it was fried in.
Sources: Jak v kuchyni, Tradice Plzeňského kraje, Levnocestování.cz, Plzeň průvodce: jídlo, Epocha na cestách, Gastronomie Plzeňského kraje
Chodské koláče
Round yeast cakes from the Chod country, topped with quark, poppy seed or plum jam. Three toppings. I do not choose. I have time for all of them.
Sources: Food on the Move (jidlonacestach.cz), Czechia, Levnocestování.cz, Plzeň průvodce: jídlo, Epocha na cestách, Gastronomie Plzeňského kraje
Báč (toč)
South-west Bohemia's potato cake. It answers to a pile of folk names: báč, bacan, kocmoud, kucmoch, toč. Every family cookbook has its own recipe. A cake with aliases. I respect that.
Ask for the one without bacon. Some kitchens add it.
Sources: Český rozhlas Regiony, Klatovský báč, Toprecepty.cz, Domažlický toč, Babinet.cz, Krajové speciality: Plzeňský kraj
Vegan
West Bohemian cooking leans on lard, cracklings, eggs and quark. Of the region's own foods, only this sauerkraut is vegan by its recipe and confirmed by three sources.
Křimické kysané zelí
Sauerkraut from Křimice, on the edge of Plzeň, trodden down in larch vats. Cabbage, salt and caraway, then six weeks of waiting. Six weeks. I have blinked for longer.
Sources: Český rozhlas Plzeň, Křimické zelí v modřínových kádích, Plzeňský deník, Zelárna v Křimicích, Blesk.cz, Křimické zelí v modřínových kádích
Late breakfast
Walter Mitty where locals go
Smetanovy sady 314/12
A café on the Smetanovy sady ring that was never meant to become a chain, just this one café. Breakfast and lunch, with coffee from the Five Elephant roastery. One café, on purpose. I am one rock, also on purpose.
- Mon07:30–19:00
- Tue07:30–19:00
- Wed07:30–19:00
- Thu07:30–19:00
- Fri07:30–19:00
- Sat09:00–19:00
- Sun09:00–19:00
Sources: Macchiato, Walter Mitty: kavárna, která vybudovala komunitu, European Coffee Trip, café guide, Walter Pilsen
Afternoon coffee
Orient Coffee the old one
náměstí Republiky 135/21
A man from the former Yugoslavia missed good coffee here, so he opened a coffee roastery with a shop and set out three tables in it for tastings. The tables were never free. He added more, and by 2002 it was a café. The coffee often comes from a džezva, the Balkan pot. The tables multiplied. The coffee stayed the point.
- Mon09:00–19:00
- Tue09:00–19:00
- Wed09:00–19:00
- Thu09:00–19:00
- Fri09:00–19:00
- Sat09:00–19:00
- Sun10:00–18:00
Sources: Plzeňský deník, interview with the café's founder (2013), Hospodářské noviny Víkend, feature on the café's founder (2017), European Coffee Trip, café guide, Orient Coffee Pilsen
Schovaná kavárna come for the one thing: the hidden courtyard
Zbrojnická 114/6
Schovaná means hidden, and it is: through a house door on Zbrojnická, into a courtyard, and it goes quiet. The beans come from the Dos Mundos and Kmen roasters, and there is breakfast and lunch too. The smell of coffee drifting out of the inner door gives the hiding place away.
- Mon09:00–19:00
- Tue09:00–19:00
- Wed09:00–19:00
- Thu09:00–19:00
- Fri09:00–19:00
- Sat09:00–19:00
- Sun10:00–18:00
Sources: European Coffee Trip, café guide, Schovaná kavárna Pilsen, Kávomilník, Schovaná kavárna Plzeň (visit, 2019)
Pappa Coffee where locals go
Veleslavínova 8
A small café with a bistro on Veleslavínova, opened by a father and his son. The kitchen cooks fresh and with the season, and there is espresso, filter and breakfast. A family business. Mine is geological, but I know the type.
- Mon07:00–17:00
- Tue07:00–17:00
- Wed07:00–17:00
- Thu07:00–17:00
- Fri07:00–17:00
- Sat09:00–19:00
- Sun09:00–17:00
Sources: Plzeňský rozhled, Pappa Coffee: opravdu jiný kafe, European Coffee Trip, café guide, Pappa Coffee Pilsen
Dinner
Štipec come for the one thing: the wood-fired oven
Riegrova 208/5
About eight dishes in ten go through the wood-fired oven on Riegrova, and the fire gives the cooking its own character. The meat and fish come from farms and ponds in the region, listed by name on the house's own page. I have been near a fire once. It was a volcano. This one is friendlier.
- Mon11:30–15:00, 17:00–23:00
- Tue11:30–15:00, 17:00–23:00
- Wed11:30–15:00, 17:00–23:00
- Thu11:30–15:00, 17:00–23:00
- Fri11:30–15:00, 17:00–23:00
- Sat11:30–15:00, 17:00–23:00
- Sunclosed
Book ahead for the evening. The house says it is not suited to children under six.
Sources: MICHELIN Guide, Štipec, Gault&Millau Czechia, Štipec
El Cid where locals go
Křižíkovy sady 325
Tapas on the Křižíkovy sady ring, with Mediterranean cooking beyond the small plates. The table fills up in rounds, one little dish at a time. That is how I would eat a mountain.
- Mon11:00–22:00
- Tue11:00–22:00
- Wed11:00–22:00
- Thu11:00–22:00
- Fri11:00–22:00
- Sat12:00–22:00
- Sunclosed
Checked 30 September 2026.
Name origin
Why it is called Pilsen.
The name Plzeň has two explanations and no winner. One reads it as a man called Plzen, a name no document has ever shown. The one many name scholars prefer is ground that slides or slumps: soft, damp, slippery earth. Slippery ground is not what a rock wants to hear. The new town was called Nová Plzeň, to tell it from the old castle town, today Starý Plzenec, and until the early 16th century people said "ten Plzeň", as if the town were a man.
Sources: Stopy historie — Ten Plzeň, https://www.stopyhistorie.cz/ten-plzen/ (accessed 2026-09-30), Národní knihovna ČR, Ptejte se knihovny — Plzeň – původ názvu (citing Lutterer–Kropáček–Huňáček, Původ zeměpisných jmen, Mladá fronta 1976), https://www.ptejteseknihovny.cz/dotazy/plzen-puvod-nazvu (accessed 2026-09-30), Český rozhlas Plzeň — O původu názvu západočeských měst I, https://plzen.rozhlas.cz/o-puvodu-nazvu-zapadoceskych-mest-i-6799556 (accessed 2026-09-30)
Why here
Somebody stood here and decided.
Where the Mže and the Radbuza meet, on a crossroads of the trade routes to Nuremberg and Regensburg. The king had a new, well-planned and well-walled town laid out right there. Two rivers and two roads: a place built for things passing through. Nothing passes through me. I keep it.
Sources: Stopy historie — Ten Plzeň, https://www.stopyhistorie.cz/ten-plzen/ (accessed 2026-09-30), Statutární město Plzeň — Po stopách historie města, https://plzen.eu/o-meste/historie/po-stopach-historie/ (accessed 2026-09-30)
Why then
When the first stone went down.
Around 1295, on the orders of King Wenceslas II, laid out by a locator named Jindřich: about 20 hectares, a right-angled grid of 15 streets and a square. The founding charter is lost. What survives is a charter from 1320, in which King John confirmed every right the town had from Wenceslas. I have met younger gravel.
Sources: Statutární město Plzeň — Po stopách historie města, https://plzen.eu/o-meste/historie/po-stopach-historie/ (accessed 2026-09-30), Stopy historie — Ten Plzeň, https://www.stopyhistorie.cz/ten-plzen/ (accessed 2026-09-30)
Who ruled
Everyone who thought they owned this.
I outlasted all of them. It is the one thing I am good at.
- 1295
Wenceslas II, King of Bohemia. Around 1295 he ordered the new town founded by the two rivers, grid and walls included. Everything I eat here, he ordered.
Sources: Statutární město Plzeň — Po stopách historie města, https://plzen.eu/o-meste/historie/po-stopach-historie/ (accessed 2026-09-30)
- 1320
John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia. The founding charter was lost, but his charter of 8 October 1320 survives: it confirmed every right the town had from Wenceslas II. Paperwork. I prefer cobbles, but I see the point.
Sources: Statutární město Plzeň — Po stopách historie města, https://plzen.eu/o-meste/historie/po-stopach-historie/ (accessed 2026-09-30)
- 1599–1600
Rudolf II, Emperor. He left Prague to escape the plague and kept his court here from 1599 to 1600, which made the town, for a while, the capital of the empire. The plague in Prague was over by January 1600. He stayed in his house on the square until June anyway. I understand. A good square is hard to leave.
Sources: Statutární město Plzeň — Po stopách historie města, https://plzen.eu/o-meste/historie/po-stopach-historie/ (accessed 2026-09-30), Stopy historie — Hlavním městem Svaté říše římské, https://www.stopyhistorie.cz/hlavnim-mestem-svate-rise-rimske/ (accessed 2026-09-30)
The emblem
What the shield means.
The camel. The oldest arms, before 1433, were a silver greyhound leaping on red. The camel arrived in the Hussite wars: the town's defenders made a bold sortie and came back with a camel from the besiegers' camp, and the townspeople most likely put it into their arms themselves, as a reminder. Tradition says Emperor Sigismund granted it; no secure proof backs that. Its field was blue until a mix-up in the papal chancery in 1578 turned it green. Two humps. I checked them for food. Just humps.
Sources: Statutární město Plzeň — Příběh znaku (citing Archiv města Plzně), https://plzen.eu/o-meste/historie/pribeh-znaku/ (accessed 2026-09-30)
Emblem: Original drawing from the published blazon — no third-party file traced
Three facts
Three things I know about this place.
The Old Town was laid out as a chessboard at the end of the 13th century, and it still walks like one: straight streets, right angles, no surprises for a rock that likes to know where lunch is. In the middle sits a square of about 139 by 193 metres, which the Czech tourist board counts among the largest medieval squares in Europe.
Sources: Kudy z nudy (CzechTourism) — Městská památková rezervace Plzeň, https://www.kudyznudy.cz/aktivity/mestska-pamatkova-rezervace-plzen (accessed 2026-09-30), Kudy z nudy (CzechTourism) — Náměstí Republiky v Plzni, https://www.kudyznudy.cz/aktivity/namesti-republiky-v-plzni (accessed 2026-09-30)
The ring of gardens around the Old Town is where the walls stood. The town began pulling them down in 1795, and in the second half of the 19th century the greenery took their place. Walk the ring and you are walking the old line of defence, now with benches.
Sources: Statutární město Plzeň — Po stopách historie města, https://plzen.eu/o-meste/historie/po-stopach-historie/ (accessed 2026-09-30), Kudy z nudy (CzechTourism) — Městská památková rezervace Plzeň, https://www.kudyznudy.cz/aktivity/mestska-pamatkova-rezervace-plzen (accessed 2026-09-30)
Three golden fountains stand on the main square, and their designs are inspired by the town's arms. Gold is shiny. It is not food. I have checked.
Sources: Kudy z nudy (CzechTourism) — Náměstí Republiky v Plzni, https://www.kudyznudy.cz/aktivity/namesti-republiky-v-plzni (accessed 2026-09-30)
Street words
What the names on the signs mean.
- náměstí
- Square. The big one is Náměstí Republiky, and it is very big.
- sady
- Gardens, the parks that ring the Old Town where the walls stood: Smetanovy sady, Kopeckého sady and the rest.
- Vnitřní Město
- The Inner Town, the official name for the Old Town inside the gardens. It is the whole level.
The size of it
Walk it in a day: Pilsen in numbers.
Counted from the streets in the level itself, not from a guidebook.
- 23streets
- 379dots
- 6.3km of street
- 7.8km on foot
- 2.2hours at a stroll
Nearby
Old Towns close to this one.
The game
Your first city is free.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone. Claim any city as your free one. Every other city is a one-time purchase you keep for good, Family Sharing included, and a city you own plays fully offline.