Finding the house
Olomouc is a small city built around two squares and a hill of churches. Hardly anything in it needs a tram, and the house stands in the middle of that part.
What you are standing in
The historic centre is a compact oval, about nine hundred metres across, set on a low rise above the Morava. Two squares run into each other. The upper one has the town hall, the clock and the Holy Trinity Column, and the lower one has the Neptune and Jupiter fountains and the quieter tables. Six baroque fountains survive in all, more than any other Czech town kept, because Olomouc declined to melt them down when fashion changed.
East of the squares the ground rises again to the cathedral and the chapter houses, where the bishops lived and the oldest masonry in the city stands. The ring of nineteenth-century parks to the west follows the line of the demolished fortress walls, and the whole perimeter takes an hour and a quarter to walk.
By train, tram, car and foot
All times are measured to the gate on Riegrova.
| From | How | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Olomouc main station | Tram 2 or 4 to the lower square, then on foot | 12 minutes |
| Olomouc main station | On foot through the park | 25 minutes |
| Olomouc city station | On foot | 9 minutes |
| Brno | Train, hourly | 1 hour 20 |
| Prague | Train, hourly | 2 hours 15 |
| Ostrava | Train, half-hourly | 55 minutes |
| Motorway D35 | Exit 282, then the inner ring | 10 minutes |
The square itself is closed to traffic for most of the day, so drive to the gate on Riegrova and unload under the arch. The porter will then send you to the public garage on the ring road, three hundred metres away, where the house keeps a block of spaces. Give the desk your registration and the barrier will recognise you.
Trams run from five in the morning until half past eleven at night and the nearest stop is ninety metres from the gate. Tickets come from the machine at the stop or from the desk, which keeps a roll of them for guests who arrive without change.
What is near the door
- The astronomical clock, on the town hall wall, 2 minutes
- The Holy Trinity Column, 3 minutes
- The lower square and its two fountains, 4 minutes
- Saint Maurice and its organ, 5 minutes
- The archdiocesan museum and the chapter houses, 12 minutes uphill
- Saint Wenceslas Cathedral, 15 minutes uphill
- Bezruc Gardens along the old wall, 8 minutes
- The Saturday market on the lower square, 4 minutes
Further out, the pilgrimage basilica on the hill north of the city takes forty minutes by bus and is worth the trip for the view back over the plain. The Hana villages east of Olomouc keep their painted farmhouse gables, and three of the growers who supply the cellar will receive visitors if the desk telephones ahead.