Prague launches new off-the-beaten-path Dan Brown-inspired tours

Prague City Tourism announced the launch of new guided tours inspired by best-selling American author Dan Brown’s latest novel, The Secret of Secrets, partly set in the Czech capital.

“Dan Brown’s book undoubtedly supports literary tourism and, at the same time, brings visitors to the places mentioned there,” said František Cipro, chairman of the board of Prague City Tourism.

“I am glad that we have managed to expand the routes to include locations from the book that are not normally accessible,” he said, putting those new tours in the wider context of Prague’s efforts to develop cultural tourism and upgrade the city’s brand and reputation for foreign visitors.

Starting in April, new tours will take enthusiastic readers or curious visitors to the Folimanka underground bunker and the U Božích muk bastion. Another separate walk will head to Prague Castle.

Up until now, most Brown-inspired tours focused on the 630-page book’s locations in the Old Town or the Jewish Quarter. To get a sense of what it’s all about, we got an early peak of what they offered last October.

Brown’s novel, which he presented himself at the end of last year during a short visit to Prague, is expected to further boost tourism like its predecessors – The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Inferno – might have done for Paris, Rome or the Vatican.

"In connection with the publication of the novel The Secret of Secrets, we have been noticing increased public interest in tours of the Folimanka nuclear shelter," explains Dalibor Sadovský, head of the Prague City Services Administration.

But the ‘Brown-mania’ is probably still in its early stages.

“Wait for a couple of years when the Netflix show comes out, that’s when you’ll see the bigger crowds,” said Daniel Karský, director of brand management for Prague City Tourism – in reference to the upcoming Netflix adaptation of the best-selling novel, also set to be filmed in Prague.