Why go
Rudolf II's court at the castle drew artists and astronomers, while the events of 1618 and their aftermath left a harder memory in the city centre. Seeing both places keeps Prague's Baroque setting from becoming a story of decoration alone.
The full story
The Bohemian estates elected the Habsburg Ferdinand I in 1526. Religious divisions later sharpened between the ruling Catholic dynasty and Protestant movements in Bohemia. Under Rudolf II, Prague Castle became a court where artists, musicians and scholars worked; the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler were among those associated with the city. That cultural life does not tell the whole story. In 1618, the second Defenestration of Prague helped ignite the Thirty Years' War. After the Bohemian revolt was defeated at White Mountain, twenty-seven leaders were executed in Old Town Square in 1621, and others were forced into exile. War and political change deeply altered Prague. Later rebuilding and the Baroque architecture visible around the city belong to this longer Habsburg period. At the castle, think of the court and its intellectual life; in the square, remember the conflict and punishment that followed the revolt.