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Nove Mesto , the "New Town", now a sprawling late nineteenth-century bourgeois quarter, was actually founded in 1348 by Charles IV. The borderline between Stare and Nove Mesto is made up by the continuous boulevards of Narodni and Na prikope, a boomerang curve which follows the course of the old moat. The latter is Prague's busiest shopping street and the former the unlikely setting for the November 17 demonstration that sparked off the Velvet Revolution. At the river end of Narodni is the gold-crested National Theatre (Narodni divadlo), a proud symbol of the Czech nation. Refused money by the Austrian state, Czechs of all classes dug deep into their pockets to raise funds for the venture themselves. Construction work commenced in 1868, but in 1881 the theatre was gutted by fire; once again, people emptied their pockets and it finally opened in 1883. In the summer, you'll get the best views of Prague from one of the rowing boats for rent on Slovansky ostrov (40kc/hr; Easter-Oct), the island opposite the theatre. Halfway along Na prikope you can visit the Mucha Museum , at Panska 7 (daily 10am-6pm; 120kc), dedicated to the country's best-known artist, Alfons Mucha. At the far end of Na prikope, on namesti Republiky, stands the Municipal House (Obecni dum), where you can see more of Mucha's work. Begun in 1903, it was decorated inside and out with the help of almost every artist connected with the Czech Secession and superbly renovated a few years ago. The easiest way of soaking up the dramatic interior, covered with Art Nouveau mosaics and pendulous chandeliers, is to have a reasonably pricey but delicious meal in the French restaurant to the right or a coffee in the equally dazzling cafe to the left. Cross the boulevard at its central point and you're into the pivot of modern Prague and the political focus of the events of November 1989 - the wide, gently sloping Wenceslas Square ( Vaclavske namesti ). The square's history of protest goes back to the Prague Spring of 1968: towards the top end, there's a small memorial to the victims of Communism, the most famous of whom, the 21-year-old student Jan Palach, set himself alight on this very spot in January 1969 in protest against the Soviet occupation. A six-lane freeway effectively cuts off the square from the National Museum (daily: May-Sept 10am-6pm; Oct-April 9am-5pm), one of the great symbols of the nineteenth-century Czech national revival, with its monumental glass cupola, sculptural decoration and frescoes from Czech history. However, unless you're a geologist or a zoologist you're likely to be unmoved by the exhibits.
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