The first thing you should do in Pilsen is have a Pilsner Urquell. The Pilsner Urquell brewery, where golden pilsner-style beer first frothed in 1842, is a short walk east of the historic centre through parkland. The brewery is touristy – ride the country’s largest lift, wonder at the rotating auditorium – but there are gems to enjoy, such as the mangled signature of Franz Joseph I of Austria from his brewery visit in 1885. The emperor liked to sign in the local language, but began his signature in German before switching halfway to Czech. A highlight of the brewery tour (£5.40 adults, £2.90 kids and seniors) is the 9km of cavernous lime-washed cellars where the pilsner used to be stored, and where the tour concludes. There, between barrels, you’ll enjoy a cool glass of perfect pilsner. If beer is the lifeblood of Pilsen, this is the heart.
Pilsen has a number of independent breweries that coexist alongside the SABMiller-owned Pilsner Urquell, the largest is Purkmistr, which produces an extensive range of IPAs, stouts and flavoured beers (including blueberry, ginger, cherry). The brewery also organises an annual beer festival, Slunce ve skle, every September, and runs the city’s first beer spa at the Pilsen Beer Spa and Wellness Hotel. Here you can take a 20-minute soak in a single or double bathtub and enjoy “a special beer bath that consists of a special batch of Pilsener-type beer and other ingredients, its initial temperature is set to 35C”; beer spa prices start from £20. For an even broader selection of beers from regional and international microbreweries visit Klub Malých Pivovar. This 70-seat craft-brew paradise is a no-frills venue with a frequently-changing drinks list – but there are always eight beers to try out. Its compact size means reservations are advised.
Pilsen’s Capital of Culture celebrations officially kick off on 17 January in Republic Square. The Pilsen Philharmonic will perform The Symphony of Bells, a piece written for the event by Czech composer Marko Ivanović, and the evening will culminate in the tolling of Saint Bartholomew Cathedral’s bells. Also on 17 January, Swiss tightrope walker David Dimitri’s performance will usher in Le Cirque Nouveau Season, a 10-month programme of contemporary circus events. Other highlights include February’s Festival of Light, combating the gloom of Pilsen’s winter with large-scale light installations; an exhibition of emotive Maori portraits from the 1890s, painted by Pilsener Bohumír Lindauer, and on loan from the National Gallery in Auckland; and Nine Weeks of Baroque from 29 June, described as “baroque through all of your senses”, will feature nine concerts in as many venues.
• plzen2015.cz
Pilsen is a student town. The conservatoire students boost Pilsen’s lively music scene, and there’s an annual jazz festival, Jazz bez hranic (Jazz without borders), in the autumn. Seek out the Gaudi-inspired Buena Vista Club (£4.50 entry) for the best acoustics in town, or if you’d rather something more spit and sawdust, gigs at Zach’s Pub (£3 entry) can have a charged atmosphere even midweek; in the summer, the bands move outside to the courtyard behind the pub.
The baroque Republic Square in the city centre is the perfect backdrop for French street theatre group Royal de Luxe. From 27-30 August, Royal de Luxe’s Little Girl Giant, a six-metre high puppet, will inhabit the city streets as part of the Capital of Culture celebrations. Pilsen has a strong tradition of puppetry: there’s a dedicated museum (muzeumloutek.cz, £4.30 for a family ticket) and the celebrated Alfa Theatre, where the son and grandson of native puppet legend Jiří Trnka continue the family trade. A biennial puppet festival, Skupa Pilsen International, falls this year as well, with foreign ensembles lining up alongside home-grown talent.
Pilsen is blessed with good-value places to stay. Central U Salzmannu (doubles from £54 a night ) is attached to the oldest pub in Pilsen, while the pizza restaurant and pension Antica (doubles from £33) can also provide respite from fried, pickled or oily Czech gastronomy. The more upmarket Hotel Rous (doubles from £59) inhabits an old burgher house dating back to 1292; its Caffe Emily serves good coffee, and has a terrace on the medieval town walls.
There’s a lucky railing on the cathedral. It’s connected to a legend about a hangman’s wedding, and locals rub the angel while making a wish. You see young women shut their eyes, rub the angel’s now shining, featureless face, and smile when they see they’re observed.
For a hot chocolate treat and sugary koláč svatební cookies visit Café Beruska just off Republic Square. The often-reserved seating is dominated by Czech grandmothers and their sugar-rushing wards.
Pilsen’s JK Tyl Theatre (DJKT), which moved into a new building last year, has more season ticket holders than any other theatre in the Czech Republic. The Bartered Bride, a comic opera by Bedřich Smetana, considered the father of Czech music, is often performed. The opera’s second act begins with the villagers singing: “Beer, it truly is manna from heaven.” That may explain why!
At its peak production, the 156-year old Škoda plant employed a fifth of the city’s workers. The extensive site, five minutes from the centre in the direction of the main bus depot, remains a source of fascination for Pilseners. When the Techmania Science Centre (science edu-tainment for kids, with a superb new exhibit dedicated to special effects) and the 3D Planetarium (adults £5 entry to both, kids £3.15 ), opened in renovated factory buildings, some visitors came for the buildings as much as the content.
Pilsen isn’t short of handsome run-down buildings in need of a lick of paint. As part of its Capital of Culture programme, the city is repurposing an old transport depot (DEPO 2015 on Cukrovarska Street) to house an eclectic series of exhibitions through the year. Ahead of the curve were Pap-rna, an abandoned paper mill turned into an arts and rehearsal space, and the Moving Station (johancentrum.cz). The latter, housed in a dilapidated hall attached to a working railway station, has been a hub for alternative artistic expression since 2004. Overseen by the non-profit JOHAN organisation, the exhibitions, avant-garde theatre and gigs attract a mix of local artists and students.
It often hits 35C in summer. Locals head to the pine-fringed Bolevec Ponds to cool off. This network of manmade ponds, on the outskirts of the city dates back to the 1400s and used to supply a brewery with ice in winter. Visit on 27 June, and you may find the shores brimming with basking seniors unwinding after the day’s Capital of Culture Sokol festival. Sokol, a form of mass synchronised gymnastics, is now mostly practised by older generations, for whom the sport is part of their national identity.
Pilsen’s restaurants serve mostly Czech cuisine, so be prepared for dumplings and flagstones of fried cheese. Na Parkánu, just off the main square, is a traditional pub-restaurant where spontaneous singing breaks out while beer is tapped by men with forearms like giant tattooed turkey legs. The unpasteurised, unfiltered Pilsner Urquell available at Na Parkánu (and on the tour of the Pilsner Urquell brewery) is rated very highly by locals. Pair it with the Brewer Plate (stewed smoked pork loin, roast sausage, roast pork, white sausage, mustard, horseradish and spicy cabbage; £4.80), or just wash down a tower of salty pretzels (20p each).
• For more information on the city and its Capital of Culture 2015 events go to visitpilsen.eu
