Prague might have stunning architecture and delicious open sandwiches — but it’s also got a rather bizarre attraction tourists are flocking to.
At just 19.6in wide (that’s just less than 50cm), Prague’s ‘narrowest street’, officially Vinárna Čertovka, is a fun stop on a tour of the city.
Squeezed between two houses in the historic Mala Strana neighbourhood, it’s only wide enough for one person to walk through at a time.
The solution? Traffic lights at either end, to ensure no one gets stuck halfway along.
Although rumour has it that some rule-flouting tourists don’t always adhere to the lights — you have been warned.
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You’ll also need to prepare for queues. TikToker Toyosi said she had to wait for 15 minutes to walk down the street… and then queue again to return back the way she came.
She added that ‘walking through it might be the most touristy thing l’ve ever done.’
Vinárna Čertovka was actually never intended to be a street, but rather a fire escape. After a blaze almost destroyed the area back in the 15th century, new rules meant that buildings needed small passageways between them, to stop fires from spreading.
If you do brave shuffling along the narrow path, there’s a pretty decent reward.
At one end of Vinárna Čertovka you’ll find Čertovka restaurant, which has a terrace with riverside views.
One TripAdvisor reviewer, who visited in December 2024, said it ‘feels like you are in a pub garden’ and added that the owner was ‘incredibly welcoming and friendly and… made sure we were warm and well looked after.’
If you want to walk through the narrowest street in the world though, you’ll need to head to the Spreuerhofstraße in Germany, which is just 31cm wide.
Quirky Europe
If you like a city-break that’s a little different, there’s plenty of places where you’ll find more than beautiful churches and quaint Old Towns.
In Wrocław, in Poland, you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled for the city’s smallest residents: the Wrocław Gnomes. There are more than 800 cute gnomes scattered around the city, a tradition which began back in 2001, when a statue of a gnome, the symbol of Poland’s anti-communist movement, was placed on one of the city’s main streets.
Since then, they’ve been popping up all over the place, and a festival in their honour is held every September. Tourists can download a map from Wrocław Tourism Board’s website to follow a trail around the city.
Or, if you take a trip to Graz, in Austria, you’re spoilt for choice with kooky attractions.
The city is home to the world’s tallest underground slide, a building that locals like to call the ‘friendly alien’, and there’s even a museum dedicated to Graz’s most famous son: Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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