The centre of Pilsen is clean and rather pretty, not unlike how you’d want a pilsner to be. — Photos: CzechTourism/dpa
The tourist site that draws most visitors to Plzen (sometimes “Pilsen”) is conveniently located just a five-minute walk downhill from the main train station. And it’s likely that most visitors do exactly what the group of middle-aged men walking in front of me are doing: go directly from the station to the brewery.
Brewery tourism already exists in many cities but it’s pretty unusual for a brewery to be the most visited site in a city.
And that’s despite the fact that the tourist office never tires of emphasising that Plzen and its surroundings have many beautiful things for visitors to admire, which is undoubtedly true. Nevertheless, they are not exaggerating when they state that if it weren’t for the beer that has given its name to an entire brewing style since 1842, many wouldn’t bother with the city an hour and a half west of Prague in the Czech Republic.
Plzen is beer and beer is Plzen, says the city’s website. And who would disagree?
Underground vault
Naturally, we start where the group of German tourists was also drawn: the Pilsner Urquell brewery. It is definitely worth a visit, in particular to see the 9km of underground vaults, through which one is led in sections. It’s cool and damp, and if you’re not careful, you risk falling on the slippery stones.
Beer was once fermented openly here in wooden barrels at constantly low temperatures. The huge cellars are a bit like tunnels found in mines. They had to be wide enough for horse-drawn carts.
The beer has long since been fermented in chilled steel tanks, but some batches continue to be fermented in wooden barrels down here. And it is precisely this beer that visitors can sample at the end of the tour: Pilsner that is unpasteurised and unfiltered.
It is virtually the same beer that the founding fathers of Pilsner in 1842 finally agreed upon at the end of their tinkering, the guide explains, after filling everyone up with a 0.3-litre glass from the wooden barrel. This original Pilsner is cloudy yellow and very drinkable. It is the highlight of the tour.
The brewery tour also takes you into the underground, kilometre-long cellars where the beer was once fermented and stored. — TOM NEBE/dpa
From the brewery, it’s just another few minutes’ walk to the old town, which not long ago underwent a major makeover. Plzen was European Capital of Culture in 2015, and a lot of money was spent in the years running up to ensure that the city’s buildings and parks were pretty. Visitors can still notice those efforts today.
Perhaps city guide Jan exaggerates a bit when he says that everything was grey here before and the parks were half jungles with high meadows. But regardless: The centre of Plzen today is pretty and clean with beautiful facades and a park that surrounds the city centre with manicured lawns, fountains and well-tended flower beds. There is also no shortage of restaurants and bars.
In the middle of it all sits the Cathedral of St Bartholomew. At 102m high, it is the tallest church in the Czech Republic. To the left of the entrance portal is a small door that you could almost miss. If you go through, you reach the viewing platform after about 300 steps. And you can easily see the brewery from up there.
After we have descended, Jan tells us that the cathedral is a Catholic church. “It’s rarely a problem to get a seat here – we’re probably the most atheist country on Earth,” he adds.
He’s not entirely wrong: Compared to other European countries, the Czech Republic is ahead in terms of the degree of secularisation.
Data show that the country is definitely the world leader in per capita beer consumption. Asked about this, Jan says only, “Maybe they’ve found a new god?”
Since 1842, the world’s first Pilsner has been brewed here beyond these gates to the brewery grounds.
Good beer, good food
In Plzen, the density of pubs is supposed to be higher than in Prague, measured against the number of inhabitants. Maybe, even if the pubs with classic cuisine such as goulash or Svickova and – a point of honour – Pilsner Urquell on tap are not as conspicuously frequent here as in some parts of the Czech capital.
In the centre of the city, U Salzmannu and Na Parkanu, where you can wash down the very intense garlic soup with an unfiltered Urquell, are among the finest restaurants serving Czech food and beer.
Na Spilce, which claims to be the largest restaurant in the Czech Republic, is located in former fermentation cellars on the grounds of the brewery. But it would be a mistake to reduce the Pilsner beer cosmos to just the one beer with the world-famous name.
Not only is there a second beer brand, Gambrinus, which is well-known and popular above all in the Czech Republic and is brewed within a stone’s throw of Pilsner Urquell. There are also more than a dozen smaller breweries in and around Plzen.
One of these is Purkmistr, where visitors can not only sample beers, but even soak in a beer-infused bath with their own beer tap within reach of the tub. – dpa
