The Eiffel Tower is on the ‘must-see’ list for almost all travelers. But if you can’t make it to Paris to see the real thing, why not check out the 3.2 mm (0.123 inch) high Eiffel Tower replica made of cherry stone in Prague’s Museum of Miniatures?

What it’s all about

The museum includes 29 exhibits, most of them created by Anatoly Konenko. They are painted on or carved into the smallest objects possible – the eye of a needle, a strand of hair or a mosquito’s wing – and can be seen only with magnifying glasses or microscopes, which of course the museum provides.

The story of the flea with the golden shoes

One of the museum’s most interesting exhibits is a flea that, thanks to Konenko’s craftsmanship, is now equipped with horseshoes. Surprisingly, shoeing fleas has actually been a common achievement among micro miniaturists, especially those from the former Soviet bloc. Тhe reason for this fascination is as intriguing as the works themselves.

It all started with a novel written by Russian author Nikolai Leskov, in which a Russian tsar visits England and receives as a gift a tiny steel flea that can dance. Upon the tsar’s return to Russia he searches for a way to outdo the English, a problem solved by a left-handed craftsman who presents a flea with horseshoes, on which the craftsman’s own name is inscribed. Although the novel was written in 1881, around 100 years before micro-miniature art gained popularity as a genre, the tale of the flea has become so embedded in the Russian psyche that it remains relevant today.

Other exhibits to see at the museum

One of the most curious works in the museum is the world’s smallest book, as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. The book in question is ‘The Chameleon’ by Russian writer Anton Chekhov, measuring just 0.9 x 0.9 mm (0.04 x 0.04 inches) and consisting of 30 pages and three illustrations. The museum contains another piece of art dedicated to Chekhov: his portrait painted on half a poppy seed.

You can also grab a microscope and examine miniature copies of masterpieces by legends like Salvador Dali and Leonardo da Vinci, hand-painted on tiny fragments of mammoth bone.

Other artworks include a caravan of camels in an eye of a needle, the Lord’s Prayer on human hairs and a sailboat on a mosquito’s wing.

Useful information

The museum is open every day from 9 am to 5 pm. Its address is Strahovské Nádvoří 11, Prague 1 – near the Strahov Monastery. To get there from the city center, take tram 22 to Pohorelec station. Tickets cost CZK 150 for adults and CZK 100 for students and children. More information here.

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Even if you are slim and skinny as a beanpole, you may wish to skip breakfast on the day you plan to visit the narrowest street in Prague.

Its width of a mere 50 cm (1.6 ft) is the reason why even a traffic light has been installed to regulate the flow of people. To find it, you should head to the Charles Bridge and Kafka Museum and make sure to look carefully to your sides, because you may miss it if you don’t know what to look for.

How to get to the narrowest street in Prague – see its location on the map:

Not exactly a street, in fact…

Further research has revealed that the street is not actually a real street, but in fact one of the last fire brigade passes left in Prague. The traffic lights were installed for fun and thanks to coverage from a few publications on the internet, it turned into a tourist attraction. At the bottom of the lane, you get a view of the Charles Bridge and there’s a small restaurant (with, as it seems from its reviews, a very dubious reputation and an owner spoiling for a fight).

The other narrowest streets you can walk in Europe

The struggle for the “Narrowest Street in the World” title has been bitter, although the numbers can’t be argued with. Here are a few other tiny lanes around Europe that have turned into tourist attractions:

Spreuerhofstraße in the Old Town of Reutlingen, Germany. At its narrowest point it is only 31 cm (12.2 in) wide. This is, in fact, the world’s narrowest street according to the Guinness World Records. 

Strada Sforii in Brasov, Romania is 109 cm (42.9 in) at its narrowest point. 

Parliament Street in Exeter, England is 64 cm (25 in) wide at its narrowest part.

>>> Read the full article: The narrowest streets in Europe to squeeze through

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Situated across from the French Embassy in Prague, this colorful mess is a symbol of rebellion, freedom of speech and desire for peace. Though some may find the one-over-another graffiti unpleasant to look at, the John Lennon Wall is a monument to make you think, and one that tells the story of the power of dreamers.

How it all began?

Monday, December 8, 1980. John Lennon – one of the greatest musicians and pacifists in the world – is shot dead in New York. The world is left shocked and in mourning.

His legacy, however, lived on. He became a hero for the youth of Central and Eastern Europe, ruled at the time by totalitarian regimes that were the opposite in every way to Lennon’s philosophy of freedom. In fact, his music, as well as all other Western songs, was forbidden, and anyone who played such music or praised such art could have been sent to jail – a threat that didn’t stop them from doing so and from rebelling against the regimes.

Neither did that threat stop the unnamed artist who drew the first image of John Lennon, along with some Beatles lyrics on the famous wall in Prague shortly after his death. That graffiti was a tribute to the legendary singer-songwriter, an act of protest against the communist regime of Gustáv Husák in Czechoslovakia and the beginning of the wall’s fame.

The war between the graffiti artists and the Czech police

The wall became a place for the young to express their thoughts and to protest – with peace messages, lyrics and images of John Lennon, as well as anti-communist slogans.

What followed was a repetition of the same events over and over again: the police would whitewash the wall and two days later the poems, the symbols and the portraits would appear there again. Neither the cameras nor the guards managed to stop the activists from sneaking in at night and putting their hero’s words on the wall again. All of that continued until 1989, when the Velvet Revolution – which is also believed to be partly inspired by the wall – put an end to communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

The graffiti was now legal. It slowly turned to more universal ideals such as love and peace, rather than anti-communist protest, but still remained popular with local and foreign activists and artists.

The Wall/War is over

On the 25^th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, November 17, 2014, the people of Prague woke up to the news that “The wall is over” –  in the night the whole wall had been painted in white with only those words left on it.

The people who did this – students from the art collective Pražská služba (Prague’s service) – explained that they did not see it as an act of vandalism. They claimed that was actually a way to celebrate the anniversary of the “fall of one big totalitarian wall 25 years ago” and “it’s not an end, but a new beginning for the wall so it could have a new set of messages from the new generation”.

Soon it began to fill with graffiti of the same free spirit again. Artists transformed the “wall is over ” text to the “war is over”, which can be seen today.

The Lennon Wall nowadays

Although the original images and lyrics of John Lennon painted in the 1980s are covered now, the spirit of the wall lives on and attracts tourists, musicians, artists and pacifists, who use it to leave their messages to the world.

Contacts and useful information

The exact address of the wall is Velkopřevorské náměstí, Prague 1. The nearest tram station is Hellichova (trams 12,20,22, 57). Another way to get there is by metro line A – the station you need to get to is Malostranská.

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Even if you think you know it well, Prague is ready to knock your socks off with its crazy stories from the past and present. Here are some of our favorite fun facts about the capital of the Czech Republic, which will enrich your trip.

1. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest castle in the world is in Prague. With the incredible area of 18 acres, ladies and gentlemen, this is the Prague Castle!

2. After the murder of John Lennon in 1980, a portrait of the rock star was drawn on the wall opposite the French Embassy in Prague. Although the wall was repainted numerous times after that, until today it’s been known as the John Lennon Wall, always covered in quotes, images, and lyrics from his songs. It is located in Mala Strana. Read the full story of the John Lennon Wall in Prague.

[Fun fact: John Lennon never visited Prague.]

3. Every hour the Prague Astronomical Clock strikes but not in a way you would expect. A whole procession sets off including the Twelve Apostles and Death and finishing off with a golden rooster crowing. The clock can also give you accurate information about the day of the year, the zodiac signs and the Medieval perception of the Universe with the Earth in its center.

4. Speaking about the Astronomical Clock, it’s good to know that Prague is not the only place you can find it. There’s a replica of the building thousands of miles to the East – in Seoul, South Korea. The Korean twin of the Clock serves as a restaurant and expo center.

5. The Jewish Quarter of Prague was not demolished in World War II. The legend goes that the reason was that Hitler planned to retire in Prague. He wanted to turn the Josehof Quarter in a museum, dedicated to an extinct race.

6. Charle’s Bridge was inaugurated at 5:31 in the morning on July 9, 1357. The reason behind this peculiar decision is that the king at the time was a maniac when it came to astrology and numerology. He believed it would be a good fortune if he arranged the numbers symmetrically: 1-3-5-7-9-7-5-3-1.

7. The narrowest street in Prague is barely 50 cm (20 inches) wide, yet it has deserved the right to have its own traffic light. The traffic light prevents pedestrians from meeting in the middle and then wondering how to walk past each other. You can find it close to Charle’s Bridge. Read more about the narrowest street in Prague.

8. Both loved and hated, the TV tower is probably most famous for its black crawling babies – sculptures by David Černý. Very few people are aware, however, that there’s a one-room hotel in the tower with an amazing view over Prague from 70 m.

9. Rumor has it that after one of their first major concerts in post-communist Prague the members of Rolling Stones liked the Prague Castle so much that they wanted to pay to make it more beautiful at night. They shared their idea with the former Czech president Václav Havel, who explained to them that the country had more serious problems to cope with. The band members offered to pay for art night lighting for the castle. So, $32,000 later, their stage light technician created the lighting of the castle, still in use today.

10. Prague was the first post-communist country to have a Michelin-star restaurant. 

Read more: Museum of Miniatures, Prague: where the Eiffel Tower is 3 mm high

Brazil: 10 fun facts that you quickly get used to

11 facts about the Eiffel Tower you probably didn’t know

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Skip breakfast on the day you decide to squeeze through some of the narrowest streets across Europe because most of them look like a crevice rather than something that is supposed to have an official name on the city’s map. Well, some are in fact deprived of a name but this doesn’t make the effort to visit them worthless. Here they are, the narrowest streets in Europe.

#1 Spreuerhofstraße

Spreuerhofstraße, the narrowest street in the world

Where: the Old Town of Reutlingen, Germany

At its narrowest point, it is only 31 cm (12.2 in) wide. This is, in fact, the world’s narrowest street according to the Guinness World Records. Spreuerhofstraße was built in 1727.

#2 The narrowest street in Italy

The narrowest street in Italy, in Ripatransone | marino cortolezzis/Flickr

Where: Ripatransone, Italy

This alley in the province of Ascoli Piceno, Le Marche, doesn’t even have a name. When you arrive in the medieval town of Ripatransone, ask the locals or follow the signs to the alley, which is only 43 cm (17 in) at its narrowest part. You can get a certificate from the tourist office as proof that you have walked along the street.

#3 The narrowest street in Prague

The narrowest street in Prague

Where: Prague, Czech Republic

Its width of a mere 50 cm (1.6 ft) is the reason why even a traffic light has been installed to regulate the flow of people. To find it, you should head to the Charles Bridge and Kafka Museum and make sure to look carefully to your sides, because you may miss it if you don’t know what to look for. The ‘street’ status of this alley has been widely disputed as it is in fact one of the last fire brigade passes left in Prague.

#4 Calletta Varisco

Calletta Varisco: the narrowest #calli #callettavarisco #tour #gita #promenade #ontheway #foundit #reunion #amies #cannaregio #venice

A post shared by Anna Sartor (@an.sartor) on Mar 11, 2017 at 10:46am PST

Where: Venice, Italy

The whole city of Venice is full of tiny alleys surrounded by mighty buildings but Calle Varisco is said to be the narrowest of them all. With its 53 cm (21 in). When you walk a little bit inside the street, stop to look up to the sky

#5 Parliament Street

Where: Exeter, England

It is 64 cm (25 in) wide in its narrowest part. Some time ago the residents in the area asked the local authorities to widen it, but, apparently, the idea wasn’t approved.

#6 Strada Sforii

Strada Sforii in Brasov, Romania | © Maria Angelova/203challenges.com

Where: Brasov, Romania

It is 109 cm (42.9 in) at its narrowest point. Translated into English, the name means “String Street”. It was built in the 15th century as a corridor that firemen could use and is the narrowest street in Romania.

Here are all the streets pinned on a map so you can find them easier:

Pin it for your next narrow-street trip:

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