The crypt itself
The actual place where the seven held out, with its walls, bullet holes and slit — a silent, heavy experience.
The Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius is a quiet Baroque Orthodox church in the New Town, and but for a single episode in 1942 it would have remained a handsome building without fame. Beneath it, in a narrow stone crypt below street level, one of the most tragic moments of European resistance to Nazism took place. In May 1942 two Czechoslovak parachutists trained in Britain — Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík — carried out the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi ruler of Bohemia and Moravia and one of the architects of the Final Solution. Afterwards they and five comrades hid in this church's crypt. A collaborator betrayed them, and German security forces surrounded the building with hundreds of troops. The seven held out for hours in the crypt, and when the Germans tried to flood it with fire hoses the survivors used their last rounds on themselves. The Nazis retaliated by erasing the villages of Lidice and Ležáky and executing their inhabitants. The crypt today is a memorial museum: you see the bullet holes in the stone, the ventilation slit through which the hoses were pushed, and the story of the seven men by name. The church above is still in use. The visit is harsh, but it is among the most important things you can understand about 20th-century Prague.
The actual place where the seven held out, with its walls, bullet holes and slit — a silent, heavy experience.
On the pavement at the ventilation slit: the bullet holes were deliberately left unrepaired, with a memorial to the seven beside them.
The exhibition presents each man by name, photograph and history — not numbers but people.
From about twelve upwards, with some preparation. The story is violent and the space enclosed and narrow, and it can be very affecting. For younger children, choose another stop in the area.
A senior Nazi officer, ruler of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and a principal organiser of the "Final Solution" to exterminate Europe's Jews. His assassination was the most successful resistance operation against a Nazi leader of that rank in occupied Europe, and it was paid for with appalling collective reprisals.
With three days in Prague, yes — particularly on the third day alongside the New Town. One hour gives you a dimension neither the castle nor the bridge offers: Prague as a city that lived through occupation and resistance.
The Dancing House is ten minutes along the embankment, Charles Square five, and the Dvořák Museum is close too — a complete New Town route in half a day.
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A quiet 18th-century interior with Orthodox icons — the contrast with the crypt is part of what the visit does to you.
Resslova 9, Prague 2 — New Town