Plzen

Two hours takes you past the fermenting vessels and the bottling line and ends in the cellars. At the finish, unfiltered beer is drawn straight from a wooden cask.

Apart from the brewery, medieval cellars run close to twenty kilometres under the centre. The route passes wells and ice stores, and it holds below ten degrees.

At 102m the tallest church spire in the country, reached by 301 steps. The openings are narrow, so a lens has to be pressed right against the frame.

The third largest synagogue in Europe, with twin towers rising 45m. Its interior colouring has been restored, and the acoustics are good enough for concerts.

An old engineering works has been filled with hands on machines. A planetarium is attached, and its showings run to a fixed timetable.

The regional puppet tradition is shown with its stage sets, and the figures can be worked by hand. On each floor there is a station teaching how the strings pull.

One of the widest squares in the country, holding three gilded fountains. Their shapes come from the city arms: a camel, an angel and a greyhound.

An arch raised in 1892 for the fiftieth anniversary now serves as the brewery entrance. The year cut into it makes it the usual photograph.

A museum gathering the record of the American liberation of this city in 1945. Commemorations fall in early May, when a column of military vehicles passes through.

The hillside is used as it stands, so moving between enclosures means climbing and dropping. A botanical section adjoins it and one ticket covers both.

Set in a Gothic malt house in the old centre, with a mock medieval tavern and old brewing tools. Its story begins with the burghers' right to brew at home, long before Pilsner existed. The historic underground tour leaves from the same building.

Apartment interiors that the architect Adolf Loos created for Jewish families of Plzen between 1907 and the early 1930s. Marble, mahogany and mirrors make tight rooms feel large. They sit inside ordinary apartment blocks, so entry is by booked guided tour.

A former bus depot converted into a creative hub when Plzen was European Capital of Culture in 2015. Studios, galleries and a cafe share the big garage roof. Weekend markets and events are frequent, and local families bring their children.

Cistercian monastery north of Plzen, a Baroque complex Santini helped design. Because the ground is marshy, the whole structure rests on thousands of oak piles, and tours show the foundations with water running beneath. It lies in a quiet village among woods.

A Benedictine monastery west of Plzen whose church Santini rebuilt in Baroque Gothic. The unusual vault, pointed Gothic arches dressed in Baroque ornament, is the draw. Guides lead visitors through the monastic buildings, and the grounds stand open.

A single-storey hunting lodge that Count Cernin built in the 1780s in the forest southeast of Plzen. Its low wings around a courtyard keep period furniture and hunting paintings. Despite the name, the Czech beer called Kozel is unrelated.