In the shadow of a world-known hotel and in the embrace of the Jizera Mountains lies a city which probably could not have chosen a more beautiful location. Liberec is a city with a long and glorious history. It enjoyed its greatest prosperity in the 18th century, when it became the largest manufacturing city in the Kingdom of Bohemia and ranked in importance just beneath Prague. Due to its largely German population, after the Munich Agreement it became the main metropolis of the Sudetenland. Today, it is above all a lively city and a great starting point for day trips to the beautiful Jizera Mountains and their observation towers, or in the winter to its popular ski resorts with downhill slopes and tens of kilometres of groomed cross-country trails.
In Liberec, there are so many choices it is hard to decide what to do first. Most visitors start their tour of the city on the main square. The first sight that catches your eye is the majestic silhouette and slender towers of the Liberec City Hall, whose appearance is reminiscent of a Gothic cathedral. Do you get the sense that you have seen it somewhere before? Perhaps in Vienna, because that is where her more famous sister is located. Just a few steps from here, you can imagine yourself for a while in the midst of a fairytale as you stroll past the Valdštejn (Wallenstein) houses, a set of beautiful half-timbered structures from the 17th century.
