Crowding on Czechia’s narrowest street, also one of the narrowest in the world, has sparked debate between a nearby restaurant and the City of Prague. The former has said that over-tourism is causing a loss of customers to their business.
Vinarna Certovka, found off U Lužického semináře Street in Prague’s oldest neighbourhood, with a width of only 70 centimetres at its narrowest point, is buckling under the pressure of overcrowding and mass tourism.
Owners of the restaurant Čertovka, which lies at the end of the lane, have said they are unhappy with the number of tourists, which amount to hundreds a day. They recently put up a sign that it is only accessible for people who want to go to the restaurant, reported expats.cz.
“Thanks to social media, the street has become so popular that crowds come to look at it, and maybe even walk through it. But this interferes with our business policy and leads to the loss of restaurant guests,” a representative of the restaurant told Czech Television.
The City of Prague, however, has said that the sign is invalid as the land on which the street is built belongs to the municipality. Councillors instructed the restaurant to change the sign, which the restaurant has agreed to do, but they want a new sign to be installed by the end of the week.
Vinarna Certovka now displays a “temporarily closed” notice on Google Maps, a recent development. However, expats.cz confirmed that the street is still accessible to the public without restrictions.
The city added traffic lights to the street in 1992 in an attempt to regulate traffic. It is impossible for two people in opposite directions to pass. However, not all respect the lights and there’s a high likelihood of human traffic jams developing.
Technically, Vinarna Certovka is a flight of stairs and not a street at all, but a fire escape. It is the last preserved fire alley in the district, according to the restaurant’s website. In the 15th-century, following a fire that destroyed almost the entire district of Mala Strana, instructions were left to leave a narrow passage between houses to avoid any spreading of future fires.
It is located just 150 metres from the Charles Bridge. It also provides access to the nearby Vltava River, which lies just metres away.
The restaurant Čertovka serves typical Czech cuisine, including sausages served with horseradish, mustard and cucumber, and dumplings with cabbage, smoked meat and fried onions.
The title of the narrowest street in the world is found in Germany, in the city of Reutlingen in Baden-Württemberg. Here, Spreuerhofstrasse is just 31 centimetres wide.
Prague is not the only city to be buckling under the pressure of rising crowds. Italy’s Venice welcomes some 20 million visitors each year, with around 120,000 on its busiest days. Many only visit the famous landmarks – including the Rialto Bridge and St Mark’s Square – concentrating numbers into a tiny footprint. This leads to damage of Venice’s buildings, puts strains on its infrastructure and inhibits local people, about 55,000 permanent residents, from going about their business. New rules have seen limits placed on tour group sizes, to a maximum of 25 people, and the banning of loudspeakers.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, announced this week that “We want the tourist flats as we know it today to disappear as of 2029”. He also announced that no more licences will be granted or renewed, meaning that legal tourist rentals, including AirBnBs, will have disappeared from the city by November 2028.
