Experience Dan Brown’s Prague: the real locations in The Secret of Secrets
THE WEEKEND
To say the Four Seasons Hotel Prague plays a major part in Dan Brown’s new book The Secret of Secrets is something of an understatement. Main character Robert Langdon – best known from Brown’s mega-seller The Da Vinci Code – wakes up there at the start of the novel and it’s a key location in the plot (and rumoured to feature in its forthcoming Netflix adaptation). Brown himself likes it so much he stayed there to launch his worldwide promotional tour, during which he described his new novel as a love letter to Prague itself. Now the hotel has launched a special package to live like Langdon for a weekend, but the book is full of Prague’s historic buildings, underground bars, gothic bridges and cobblestoned alleyways if you just want to replicate his adventures.
WHERE? THE REAL LOCATIONS FROM DAN BROWN’S THE SECRET OF SECRETS
Steps from both the Old Town and the Vltava River, Four Seasons Hotel Prague is adored by Langdon for good reason. Beyond the gleaming marble lobby, rooms are classically elegant with warm woods, sink-into carpets and Bohemian crystal chandeliers. The Royal Suite is Langdon’s preferred room within the original 16th-century riverside villa overlooking Prague Castle and has its own baby grand piano, dining room and fireplace. In the main hotel, there’s a lounge filled with modern Czech art and a glamorous martini trolley, a smart spa with a lounger-lined vitality pool and, in summer, a four-table rooftop Japanese restaurant with the best views in a town full of them. Reception can arrange a host of exclusive experiences Langdon would approve of, from a boat ride for two on the Vltava River to a private tour of the magnificent Clementinum library, full of frescoes and rare leather-bound books, that the character describes as his favourite place in the city.
THE LOCATIONS
A walking tour of Dan Brown’s Prague traces Langdon’s steps and covers many of the book’s significant locations, including the Old Jewish Cemetery, the Old-New Synagogue and Charles Bridge. The tour is included in the Prague Visitor Pass, which also covers unlimited trips on public transport and more than 70 experiences such as a walking tour of the medieval passages underneath the city, the Charles Bridge museum and the 19th-century Mirror Maze on Petrin Hill with its spooky distorting mirrors.
I used the same pass to visit the top of the Gothic 14th-century Old Town Hall tower with its sweeping city views across terracotta roof tops, domed churches and baroque palaces. Once an hour, tourists gather outside to watch a procession of twelve apostle figures emerge from its famous astronomical clock, which also appears in Brown’s book as Langdon races across the capital to solve a mystery. Like him, I head to Prague Castle next, a vast hilltop complex of palaces, churches and museums. On cobbled Golden Lane, I duck inside the tiny cottage where Czech writer Franz Kafka lived and worked during the First World War. Nearby is the soaring St. Vitus Cathedral, where the Bohemian Crown Jewels are kept behind a metal door with seven locks – the keys held by seven different people – which is believed to have first inspired Brown’s novel.
FOOD AND DRINK
Ask for a table at the very back of the hotel’s CottonCrudo restaurant to dine with postcard-perfect views of Prague Castle. Its fine-dining Italian dishes include melt-in-the-mouth beef carpaccio, handmade lobster tagliatelle and pulled duck ravioli. If you dare, order a Sex and the City cocktail at the bar afterwards, a mix of vodka, fig, lime, coca water and local absinthe, which gives one character portentous nightmares in The Secret of Secrets. Other great spots for a drink include the Letna Beer Garden with its Czech lagers and Old Town views – beware it’s cash-only – and the dimly-lit basement Black Angel’s Bar, where Brown orders the potent Black Angel’s Medicine when he’s in town.
TOP TIP
No need to pay for a tourist bus tour. Vintage trams on line 42 follow a circular route around the city past all the major sights and tickets are valid for 24-hours so you can hop on and off as you fancy.
NEED TO KNOW:
Rooms at Four Seasons Hotel Prague start from £440. Book at fourseasons.com/prague/. A 48-hour Prague Visitor Pass costs from 2600 CZK (approx. £95) for an adult from praguevisitorpass.eu/. For more information on Prague, visit prague.eu/en/