Olomouc is one of the most interesting and most important cities in Czech Republic. Its Old Town is very extensive and only the Old Town in Prague is bigger in Czech Republic. The main architectural styles are baroque and renaissance. It is worth to visit this city to become familiar with its beautiful monuments. The time spent here will certainly not be lost. We stayed here for only a few hours, but you can easily spend here even a few days without getting bored at all.
Olomouc is an important road junction, so arriving to the city is not a problem. There is a D46 motorway going through the city, which smoothly changes to D1 leading up to the Polish-Czech border near Ostrava. Just enter the highway, and after about an hour you are already in Olomouc. We decided to drive to the center of the town and we stopped in the parking lot at "1. máje" street, at the Republic Square (nám. Republiky) (P1; GPS: 49.596089, 17.257688). The parking is paid.
About 100 meters from this fairly small parking lot you can however find a very large, multi-storey car park "Central Parking" (Koželužská street, P2; GPS: 49.597199, 17.257564). The price of this parking lot is 20 CZK/hour.
The historic center is the most interesting area to explore, so we first head the Upper Square (Horní náměstí) (A). There is the Town Hall (GPS: 49.593813, 17.251459) and beautiful Trinity Column (GPS: 49.593933, 17.250440) (largest in Europe) - since 2000 it is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. On one of the walls of the town hall there is very interesting astronomical clock (GPS: 49.594020, 17.251406) from the fifteenth century. The city is also famous for its fountains: in the main square we can admire the Fountain of Caesar (GPS: 49.593985, 17.252148) and the Hercules Fountain (GPS: 49.594194, 17.251059), as well as more modern Arion Fountain (GPS: 49.593436, 17.251102). You can often find various shows or happenings on the square. Once we came here for the annual wine spring festival with shows of folkloric dances and songs of Moravia (Olomoucké vinné slavnosti).
Olomouc has also a second market square called the Lower Square (Dolní náměstí) (B). It is located about 100 meters south-east of the Upper Square. On the Lower Square we can admire an interesting baroque Marian column (GPS: 49.592175, 17.252788) of the eighteenth century.
There is beautiful Saint Wenceslas Cathedral (GPS: 49.597819, 17.262240) (C) from the twelfth century with more than 100-meter tower on the other side of the Old Town. Originally it was a Romanesque church, but after a fire in 1265 it was completely rebuilt in the Gothic style. It is a unique architectural and religious monument. Next to the cathedral we can find the Archbishop's Palace (GPS: 49.598335, 17.261735), which houses the museum.