The genuine half
The fruit, vegetable, honey and nut stalls at the eastern end — where people who live here actually shop.
Diligent — Public domain · Vojtěch Bartoněk — Public domain · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Paul Korecky — CC BY-SA 2.0
Cheaper than the Old Town Square shops, but not the cheapest in Prague, and quality varies widely. For real Bohemian crystal or garnet, buy from a specialist shop with a guarantee, not a stall.
Not on its own, but it is an excellent practical stop: this is where you buy fruit and water mid-walk instead of paying square-front café prices.
Some stalls do, some are cash only. Carry small Czech crown notes, and avoid the street money changers nearby entirely — use an ATM or a proper exchange office.
The Old Town Square and astronomical clock are four minutes north, Wenceslas Square four minutes south, the Estates Theatre five — the market is the midpoint of all of them.
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Havel's Market is the last open-air market left in the heart of old Prague, trading on the same spot since roughly 1232 — older than most of the buildings around it. It was founded to serve the quarter of German merchants who settled around the church of St Gall (Havel in Czech), and for centuries it was the fruit and vegetable market where the city bought its daily food. Today it splits visibly in two: one half still sells fruit, vegetables, honey and nuts to people who live nearby; the other has turned into souvenir stalls — wooden puppets, mugs, magnets, cut glass. The first half is genuine and useful; the second is purely touristic, with prices open to modest haggling. The market's real value is its position: three minutes from both the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square, making it the obvious place to buy fruit, water or a snack for far less than the square cafés charge. Buy fruit by weight rather than by the piece, and ask the price before the seller weighs it.
The fruit, vegetable, honey and nut stalls at the eastern end — where people who live here actually shop.
A genuinely old Czech craft — but beware, much on display is cheap import. Look for detailed handwork; it is clearly more expensive.
Medieval stone arcades shade both sides of the market — among the finest arcaded streets in the Old Town.
A curving Baroque façade at the end of the market — the church that gave the place its name in the 13th century.
Havelská street, Old Town, Prague 1