There are places that, on first glimpse, stop you dead in your tracks with sheer wonder. The unexpectedly large size of the square, which suddenly opens up from the little alleyways, and colorful baroque houses contrasting with the sweeping old-Gothic tower of the Tyne church in the background gives it a majestic presence. Considered the heart of the Old Town, the square grew to its present proportions when the city's original marketplace was moved away from the river in the 12th century. Its shape and appearance have changed little since that time. During the day the square is festive, as musicians vie for the favor of onlookers and artists display renditions of Prague street scenes. In summer the square's south end is dominated by sprawling outdoor restaurants. During the Easter and Christmas seasons, it fills with wooden booths of vendors selling everything from simple wooden toys to fine glassware. At night, the brightly lighted towers of the Týn church rise gloriously over the glowing baroque façades.

During the 15th century the square was the focal point of conflict between Czech Hussites and German Catholics. In 1422 the radical Hussite preacher Jan Zelivský was executed here for his part in storming the New Town's town hall three years earlier. In the 1419 uprising, three Catholic consuls and seven German citizens were thrown out the window -- the first of Prague's many famous defenestrations. Within a few years, the Hussites had taken over the town, expelled the Germans, and set up their own administration.

Twenty-seven white crosses embedded in the square's paving stones, at the Old Town Hall's base, mark the spot where 27 Bohemian noblemen were killed by the Austrian Hapsburgs in 1621 during the dark days following the defeat of the Czechs at the Battle of White Mountain. The grotesque spectacle, designed to quash any further national or religious opposition, took about five hours to complete, as the men were put to the sword or hanged one by one.

One of the most interesting houses on the Old Town Square juts out into the small extension leading into Malé námestí. Trimmed with elegant cream-color 16th-century Renaissance sgraffiti of biblical and classical motifs, the house, called U Minuty (3 Staromestské námestí, Staré Mesto), was young Franz Kafka's home in the 1890s.