EUROTRIP locations in Prague

EUROPTRIP FILMING LOCATIONS

Leaving almost two decades behind after the premiere, the ‘Eurotrip’ story is still one of the best comic interpretations of the travels in the movies, evidently the second after adventures of the Griswald family. The geographical span of the story leads its audience from the provincial college in Ohio, across England, France, Netherlands, and Slovakia, to Berlin, Rome, and back to the United States. Few among the multi-million viewers become aware of the fact that much of ‘Eurotrip’ was filmed in the Czech Republic. Apart from the scenes depicting Bratislava (staged in the former military garrison near Milovice), the highway (the motorway near Czech town Pilsen), and the fictional French town Crans-sur-Mer (Train station Davle, also in the Czech Republic), all scenes were, in fact, filmed in Prague. Taking advantage of the Czech capital was so devoted, that even the American college supposedly in Hudson, Ohio was actually filmed at the International School of Prague on the western outskirts of the city. 

A BEER PUB IN LONDON

Followed by a brief scene with a panoramic view over the British parliament, which was actually shot at the bank of the river Vltava in Prague and later digitized with the CGI, Scotty and Cooper take a walk across London. The one-in-a-lifetime acquaintance with the Manchester United football fans in reality took place in the very heart of Prague, within a former Jewish quarter, which has been historically known as  ‘Zidovska ctvrt’. In order to intensify the atmosphere of London, the ‘Eurotrip’ filming crew placed the well-recognized red double-decker bus just around the corner. When the two key characters get close to the ‘FEISTY GOAT’ bar, Scotty and Cooper are actually walking lengthwise ‘U Obecního dvora’ street, which can be translated as ‘Municipal court’. 

Thanks to its historical location in the old town (STARE MESTO), the area itself contains notable historical monuments and tourist attractions. For example, behind the cameraman, you may see ‘Klášter sv. Anežky České’ (Convent of Saint Agnes), which was founded as far back in history as the XIII century. Also beyond the scene to the right, but still real in Prague, one may come across ‘Speculum Alchemiae’, a museum of the old alchemical laboratory from the XVII century. And another street, parallel to ‘U Obecního dvora’, reveals the tiniest house in Prague known as ‘Nejmenší dům v Praze’, an erection of only 2.25 meters in width. In regard to the movie appearances of the area, at nothing more than one hundred meters Ethan Hunt from the ‘MI: Ghost protocol’ stole a mobile phone after his escape from the hospital, and went to ‘Kozi’ street to make a call. A night scene with a car taking vice-chancellor Franz von Papen from ‘Hitler: The rise of Evil’ was shot just on two street corners from the ‘FEISTY GOAT’ bar. Getting back to the bar itself, the origin and the naming was fictional, yet you may come to the site to find ‘James Joyce Irish Pub’, known as the place of the first pint of draught Guinness poured in the Czech Republic back in 1993. Prague’s oldest Irish pub indeed is a good reference to Great Britain. 

ON THE STREETS OF PARIS: THE EIFFEL TOWER

For as much as the greatest part of ‘Eurotrip’ was staged in Prague in the summer of 2003 and was to depict a few European capitals at once, CGI technology came into the picture. The man responsible for turning Prague into a site of well-known landmarks from elsewhere was Visual Effects Supervisor Kevin Blank. Followed by a CGI Big Ben in London added to the quarry of Vltava, the next challenge was to recreate an atmosphere of Paris, once the football bus reached the French capital. It is hard to imagine any French landmark more recognizable than the Eiffel tower, so the ‘Eurotrip’ followed the trend. In this brief scene, the iconic erection dominates the street. Along with the Eiffel tower itself, a patient movie enthusiast may notice some other details, added by Allan Starski, a well-known production designer, known for his work on Roman Polanski’s ‘Pianist’. We may see the ‘Dupleix metro station’ sign, which indeed exists and is a part of the 6 metro line in Paris just like depicted in ‘Eurotrip’. 

The movie magic of the filmmakers should not lead the audience astray as we cover the distance from London, being shot in Prague, to Paris, also staged in the capital of the Czech Republic. The place of the actual filming is  ‘U Obecního Domu’ in the Old Town. While the original Czech naming of the street from the previous location may be translated as the ‘Municipal Court’, this one means ‘Municipal house’. As a matter of fact, the distance between these two locations is less than half a kilometer. ‘U Obecního Domu’ has historically changed several names, from ‘Lviv’ after the Ukrainian city, the former capital of the Austrian Galicia region, to ‘Paris’ and finally after the Municipal House of Prague since 1927. In regard to the reference to the French capital, the street bore its ‘Paris’ name at the beginning of the XX century in devotion to ‘Hotel Paris’, which was built here in 1904. You may still see the hotel on the left side of the road within the same scene with the Eiffel tower in the background. 

When Vinnie Jones’ character leaves the double-decker bus, he notices a man with a ‘FRANCE’ sign on his football t-shirt, and a mob of Manchester fans rushes after the potential trophy. In this scene with the French man running, you may identify another famous hotel in Prague: Grand Hotel Bohemia at Králodvorská street. It is the same location, just filmed in the opposite direction to Obecního Domu street. The area is known as a place of the old royal residence from the XIV century, once located on the site of the modern Municipal house. The latter may be identified by movie fans as one of the filming locations of the very first ‘Mission Impossible’. Back in 1996, a part of the Municipal house complex played the role of Max’s apartment. 

MEETING WITH THE TWINS AND LOUVRE

This scene was saturated with the ‘Parisian’ details just as much as the previous one. Scotty and Cooper leave the metro station called ‘Tuileries’, the station on line 1 of the Paris traffic system. The real station is in fact located at arm’s end from the Louvre in Paris, yet ‘Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre’ is the more appropriate starting point closer to the museum. In actual terms with the movie sets in Prague, we found ourselves at Jan Palach Square next to the Vltava river. It is worth noting, that back in the latter half of the XIX century, the area was located beyond the walls of the old town. The situation was changed with the building up of a new monumental building in neo-renaissance style: RUDOLFINUM, next to which the character of ‘Eurotrip’ made a reunion. When it was finished, the building was to become the first multi-purpose cultural center in central Europe, which currently accommodates the Czech Philharmonic, and is a place favored for concerts, festivals, and art exhibitions. It gained its name after Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, who inaugurated the building in 1885. In the course of its history, Rudolfinum was even used as a seat for the Czech parliament and has been reconstructed a number of times. As late as 1990 the monumental landmark was renovated one more time to regain its authentic appearance and was opened to the public in 1994 as a national monument. 

In the following short sequence, we indeed could see the inner courtyard of the most recognized museum in the whole world: the background beyond the line was also added by means of CGI. Followed by a glimpse of the actual Paris, the fight scene between Scotty and the robot took place nowhere else than on the quay of the Vltava in Prague. The sequence was actually staged just around the corner from Jan Palach Square to the left. The four characters take their time at the walls of Rudolfinum from the previous scene, and this section of the quay is called Alšovo nábř. It is worth mentioning that the area around the famous Czech Philarmony has been long ago favored by filmmakers. The Northeastern corner of Rudolfinum is known for the night scene with Jason Bourne soon after his supposed arrival in Zurich. The same year 2003 that witnessed the shooting of Eurotrip, Jan Palach Square played a role in ‘Hitler” The rise of Evil, when general Ludendorff left the car, supposedly in Munich. While Scotty, Cooper, Jenny, and Jamie were at the square, the camera perspective paid no attention to the Manesuv bridge nearby, which would make its appearance in ‘Ghost protocol’ in 2011, with the car with Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner crashing into a river. 

PARIS TRAIN STATION

After a scene at Jean Luc restaurant (unfortunately, I failed to find the location in Prague), the four friends decided to continue traveling across Europe toward Berlin. Scotty buys four railway tickets from Paris and this short sequence and the setting is once again full of the ‘french-related’ details of the production design. Particularly the ‘Theater de la Ville’ banner to the left, which was put here to remind us about the supposed location: one of the train stations in Paris. ‘Hlavní Nádraží’, Prague’s main train station is an important transport hub not only for Prague or the Czech Republic but the Western Europe, which unites Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, and Switzerland. Being initially called ‘Emperor Franz Josef’s Railway Station‘ after the Emperor, the new railway station opened its doors for the first time as early as 1871. After WWII, the station bore the name of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States, for five years. 

Since its first opening, the Prague main train station has witnessed several reconstructions and expansions. The new modern building, which had been erected in 1909 was later (in the 1970s) added by modern construction, currently occupying the old historical square. The old part of the station (1909) is recognizable in the same scene as the ticket office. ‘Hlavní Nádraží’ had been intensively favored by the filmmakers, who see no contradiction in depicting it as the train stations of different European cities. In ‘Bourne Identity’, Jason arrives here while supposed to be in Zurich. In ‘Hitler: The rise of Evil’, we could see a young Adolf Hitler waiting for his sister inside the train station in Vienna in 1913. In 2006 Prague’s ‘Hlavní Nádraží’ made another appearance in ‘The illusionist’ movie, and in 2011 played the role of Budapest in ‘MI: Ghost protocol’. 

AN EARLY MORNING IN AMSTERDAM

Followed by a brief stop in the fictional French village Crans Sur Mer, the four friends reach Amsterdam, where each of them experiences night adventures. In the morning the American students get once again acquainted at the small bridge over one of the famous Amsterdam canals, which actually may be found in Prague. The capital of the Netherlands is famous for its water arteries and Prague for its Kampa island. I did pay compound attention to this location in the later article about ‘Mission impossible Prague filming locations’. Apart from the adventures of Tom Cruise, the surrounding area of the Charles bridge made its cinematic appearance in ‘Van-Helsing’ (2004) as the riverbank of the Danube in Budapest. The neighboring ‘Na Kampe’ park (literally: on the Kampa island) played its role as a night park in Zurich for ‘Bourne Identity’. 

In contrast to the four main canals in Amsterdam, each many kilometers long, the artificial body of water, which separates Kampa island from the rest of Prague, is 740 meters long. This reservoir is known as ‘Certovka’, which may be literally translated as ‘wicked woman’ or ‘she devil’. This artificial arm of the Vltava river was excavated by the members of the Knights of Malta back in the XIII century to have better control over the flow of the water to supply numerous watermills and workshops in the area. For some time in the past, the artificial arm of the river was known as  ‘Rosenberg’ after the landowner of the area. The origin of the modern ‘Certovka’ naming may be traced to the 1890s and a legend about the querulous woman, who used to live in one of the houses nearby. The woman’s ill character made her no friends and initially her home and later the whole artificial canal was called ‘Certovka’. On the contrary, the more grounded version explains the naming in relation to the so-called “U sedmi čertů” house (The house of the seven devils) in the area. This story also includes a part about the woman, who had once landed a house. Getting back to the scene from ‘Eurotrip, this particular bridge does not have its own name, yet it is worth noting that the area of ‘The Certovka’ river and the Kampa island is widely known as ‘Venice in Prauge’. 

BERLIN: MIEKE’S APARTMENT

Followed by a picturesque stay in Bratislava, evidently the most memorable location in the whole movie, Scotty finally finds his way to Berlin. The protagonist possesses a photo of Mieke and her cousin in front of the modern residential building. The ‘Eurotrip’ movie is once again persistent in playing with the audience by placing the large FRIEDRICHSHOF-3 address above the entrance to the building, supposed to be an address in Berlin. The truth is that there is no Friedrichshof street in Berlin, which is fine for the fictional movie filmed in Prague. The actual address of the location in Prague is Stroupežnického 21-23 in the Smichov district. 

This particular Eurotrip filming location in Prague is the most distanced in regard to Charles bridge as the heart of the city, except for the fictional Ohio college. Leaving the modernity of the building out, the area made its way to the map of Prague as far back as 1297. The territory of the modern Smichov has been changing the ownership several times, from the cleric’s hands to the public and later private ownership. As early as the XVIII century the former summer villas of the rich Prague intelligentsia made space for the industry: sugar mill and refinery, spinning factory, printing house, match factory, the production of the partitions for water mills, confectionery factory, the year 1869 saw the foundation of the well-known Staropramen brewery. Toward the beginning of the XX century, Smichov did become a town with a population of 50 000 people, one-fourth of the Prague citizenry, and in 1922 it was absorbed by the bigger neighbor. The modern building at Stroupežnického 21-23 (the street was once named after Ladislav Stroupežnický, a well-known Czech author and dramatist), where the scene from ‘Eurotrip’ was filmed, is actually a business center with the offices available and shopping floor space, but with no residential purpose. For example, since 2009 (six years after the filming of the movie) one of the wings of the building has been accommodating the largest museum of toy railways in Europe. 

ON THE STREET OF ROME: THE COLISEUM

Downstream from the failure to meet Mieke in Berlin, the four friends take advantage of the Leica camera cost and make their way to Rome. It is hard to imagine a journey to the capital of Italy without a glimpse of the coliseum, particularly after the scene with Big Ben in London and the Eiffel tower in Paris. The iconic-like amphitheater makes its appearance for only a few seconds being anyway added by CGI to one of the Prague locations. One could find the exact place just a few steps from the bridge over the ‘Certovka’ canal, which has recently played the role of Amsterdam. The tourist shop called ‘Summer at sea’ and the FIAT car on the left, do not hide the fact that the scene was filmed next to the Charles bridge in Prague. The origin of the bridge is clearly seen on the left. The exact address of the building with the shop is U lužického semináře 5. This house in baroque style was built in the XVIII century and as early as 1875 was added by the second floor and the renewed front side. ‘Lužického semináře’ street was named after the Lusatian Seminary, which had once stood in the area. Many of the houses nearby have been protected as the monuments of Czech Republic since 1964. 

THE VATICAN PALACE

While the scenes from St. Peter’s square in Rome may seem quite authentic, it is no more than a combination of a giant frontside set and of CGI. In regard to the journey into the Vatican palace, the luxurious interior was once again found in Prague, inside one of the most gorgeous buildings in the city. The most memorable takes are definitely from the sequence when Jamie acts as a guide for an improvised tour inside the Vatican, and the group is making their way toward the luxurious stairs. If you have a feeling that you may have seen this location before, you would be definitely right. The interiors of the National Museum of Prague (Národní Muzeum) played the role of the US embassy in ‘Mission Impossible’ in 1996, as a lobby of the Venetian hotel in ‘Casino Royale’ in 2006, and the London gallery in ‘From Hell’ in 2001. The front side of the building also made an appearance in ‘Hitler: The rise of Evil’ as the palace in Berlin. 

The National Museum of Prague and particularly the main building at Václavské nám. 68 is one of the architectural landmarks of Prague. It was built in 1891 and nowadays accommodates the breathtaking collection of millions of museum units. This gorgeous monumental building in neo-renaissance style has a front side of one hundred meters and is 70 meters in height. The main dome in the center is complemented by another four on each corner of the building. Apart from the museum pieces of historical significance, the museum serves as a giant library with 1.3 million precious books and 8 thousand manuscripts. Seven years after the visit of the ‘Eurotrip’ filming crew, the building was put under restoration, which lasted until reopening in 2018.