Experience the best of Pilsen

Pilsen, or Plzeň, lies where four rivers meet in western Bohemia, west of Prague. Its great square, Náměstí Republiky, has a Renaissance town hall decorated with sgraffito, and St Bartholomew's Cathedral, whose spire of about 102 metres is the tallest church tower in the Czech Republic. A large synagogue, one of the biggest in Europe, stands close to the old town.

In 1842 a Bavarian brewer, Josef Groll, made the first golden lager here, and the brewery that grew from it is the city's biggest draw. Beneath the old town, a network of medieval cellars, the Historical Underground, is open to visitors. Plasy Abbey, a Cistercian monastery, lies to the north, and the spa towns of west Bohemia, Mariánské Lázně and Karlovy Vary, are to the north-west.

Roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut, beef in cream sauce and thick pea soup go well with beer poured with a thick head of foam. The city was European Capital of Culture in 2015, and American troops liberated it in May 1945. The cellars under the old town stay cool whatever the season.