4 Best Sights in Prague, Czech Republic

Located at the eastern edge of Karlín, this giant metallic female figure is the latest creation from Prague's master of modern sculpture David Černý, perhaps best known for the faceless babies climbing Žižkov TV Tower. Standing more than 24 meters high and weighing 35 tons, the figure is hugging—or seemingly holding up—the side of a modern apartment block. Take a stroll around to see other Černý artworks in a similar style, including giant arms and legs "propping up" elements of the building. For a uniquely strange experience, come at midnight to see Lilit's head rotate 180 degrees.

It is fitting that the monument to Franz Kafka in Prague, located close to his birthplace, has a suitably surreal, Kafkaesque feel, depicting a small Kafka-like figure riding on the shoulders of a giant, empty suit. It was inspired by one of his short stories and created by sculptor Jaroslav Róna in 2003, and it now stands proudly on the corner of Dušní. Check out the base for the tiny tribute to arguably his most famous work, The Metamorphosis. There are other highlights for Kafka fans in Josefov, too—for example, his birthplace, on the corner of Maiselova and Kaprova, is marked with a bust.

Few memorials in Prague have consistently elicited as much controversy as this one, dedicated in July 1915, exactly 500 years after Hus was burned at the stake in Constance, Germany. Some maintain that the monument's secessionist style (the inscription seems to come right from turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna) clashes with the Gothic and baroque style of the square. Others dispute the romantic depiction of Hus, who appears here as tall and bearded in flowing garb, whereas the real Hus, as historians maintain, was short and had a baby face. Either way, the fiery preacher's influence is not in dispute. His ability to transform doctrinal disagreements, both literally and metaphorically, into the language of the common man made him into a religious and national symbol for the Czechs.

"Let's meet at the horse" is the local expression referring to the traditional meeting place that is Josef Václav Myslbek's impressive equestrian representation of St. Wenceslas surrounded by other Czech patron saints. In 1939, Czechs gathered here to oppose Hitler's annexation of Bohemia and Moravia. In 1969, student Jan Palach set himself on fire near here to protest the Soviet-led invasion of the country a year earlier (there's a moving monument to him in the cobbles). And in 1989, many thousands successfully gathered here and all along the square to demand the end of the communist government.