Malá Strana

Malá Strana (in English literally "Little Side", though more frequently described as "Lesser Quarter" or "Lesser Side") is originally a popular and nowadays also official name for former Menší město pražské ("The Lesser Town of Prague"), one of Prague's historical and oldest boroughs.

Its name comes from its position on the left (west) bank of the river Vltava, on the slopes immediately below the Prague Castle, in opposition to the larger cities of Prague on the right bank, to which it is conjoined by Charles Bridge.

In the Middle Ages, it was a dominant centre of the German settlement of Prague. It also housed a large number of noble palaces, while the right-bank cities were comparatively more bourgeois and more Czech.

Novelist Jan Neruda lived and wrote about Malá Strana.

At Malá Strana the Petřínská rozhledna is located.