Praga Magica is an interactive, video projection, exhibition in a building just opposite the Town Hall and astronomical clock on the Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí).
One of the highlights are the stairs, made to look like waterfalls using video mapping.
We later discovered that the projection was from video taken by a drone that hovered above Prague’s Vltava river.
The entrance is next door to Restaurant 420.
And after picking up your ticket and connecting to the wifi, you climb the first waterfall.
At the top, you’ll discover a video projection room that continually produces a random statue by mixing the top, middle and bottom image. This is based on the surrealist game ‘Cadavre exquis’ (Exquisite Corpse), developed in France around 1925 that later became popular among Prague surrealists.
A later exhibit allowed you to become part of the game.
There is a webpage that you can use as a guide (13 languages) https://app.pragamagica.eu/en/uvod – Czech and English descriptions are written on the walls so we didn’t use the app.
We then found an interactive machine where we could design a house sign, similar to those found on the façades of hundreds of Prague buildings.
Next, was a comprehensive history of the building that houses the exhibition. It was intriguing to read that there was perhaps a tunnel that lead to the Town Hall opposite. We would have liked to see a spooky recreation of the tunnel, that exited to the video projection of the apostles rotating behind the astronomical clock.
We reached the next floor via waterfall stairs. There seemed to be a repeat projection of the history of the house and we’d already read all we needed before.
An interactive projection enabled us to appear in the apostles window of the astronomical clock.
The ‘walk across Charles Bridge’ attraction didn’t really feel like a walk across the bridge. I’d prefer a room with a 360° view projected onto the walls. There is even suitable room – currently with a video projection on the ceiling.
We enjoyed a surreal projection that imagined the towers of Prague departing into space like rockets.
An interactive room, where you could become the hands of a clock, seemed like a wasted space, plus we were all video-projected out by then.
There is a spectacular view to the Town Hall and astronomical clock. You can avoid the crowds watching the hourly display of the apostles if you time your visit right.
We descended the waterfall stairs – harder than climbing them!
Once outside, we decided that we’d enjoyed our 50-minute visit, but felt that we were missing something. The Praga Magica Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pragamagicaexhibition/ contains several enticing videos (only in Czech, although I think this is more a place for tourists) that talk about Golem, hidden tunnels and alchemy – disappointingly, none of these appear in the exhibition.
All the projections are self explanatory. Despite this, there are staff on every floor who are keen to assist visitors.
Every tourist visiting Prague will find themselves in the Old Town Square at some point. Praga Magica could be better, but you can easily while away 50 minutes and then have a private window to the astronomical clock display.
Praga Magica
Staroměstské nám. 480/24, Prague, Czech Republic
+420 734 545 352
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