The Forgotten Baroque City of Olomouc

Olomouc is a secret. It was the historical capital of Moravia and the second most important city in the Czech lands until the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) devastated it. It recovered and rebuilt itself in flamboyant baroque, but the economic centre of gravity never returned to Olomouc — instead it went to Prague and Brno. The result is a beautifully preserved baroque city of 100,000 people that receives a fraction of the visitors that Prague does, with the sixth-largest concentration of baroque monuments in the Czech Republic and six exuberant baroque fountains in its main squares, including the UNESCO-listed Holy Trinity Column.

The Olomoucky tvaruzky (Olomouc cheese, also called syrky) is a pungent soft cheese that has been made in Moravia since at least the 15th century. It has Protected Designation of Origin status, can only be produced in the Olomouc region, and smells so intense that it is banned on many forms of Czech public transport. It tastes excellent. The Hanacka Hospoda restaurant in the old town serves it traditionally — grilled with bread, mustard, and a dark Kozel beer — and this combination, in a 16th-century building, with no tourists and friendly confusion about why you are there, is one of the most pleasantly eccentric experiences available in Central Europe.

Olomouc has a large university population (the Palacky University is one of the oldest in Central Europe, founded 1573) that gives the city an unusually lively cultural scene for its size. The Archbishop's Palace and Museum of Art, Svaty Kopecek (Holy Hill) baroque basilica just outside the city, and the Astronomical Clock (deliberately rebuilt in a socialist-realist style after World War II, celebrating workers instead of saints) are all worth half-days. Take the train from Prague (2.5 hours) and stay two nights.