Hradec Králové is the capital of northeastern Bohemia, a city of around 90,000 at the confluence of the Elbe and Orlice rivers, about 50 km southwest of Náchod. Its name means "Castle of the Queen", a reminder that it was long a dowry town of Bohemian queens, and its old core still rises on a low hill above the rivers, crowned by the Gothic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit and the slender White Tower.
What sets Hradec Králové apart is what happened below the old town. In the early twentieth century the city tore down its obsolete fortress walls and laid out a new town to a unified plan, much of it designed by the architect Josef Gočár. The result is one of Europe's finest ensembles of inter-war urbanism — brick-and-render façades, careful boulevards, schools, and public buildings in restrained Cubist and Functionalist styles — which earned the city its nickname, the "Salon of the Republic". Architecture students still come to study it.
The old town repays a slow wander: the arcaded main square, Velké náměstí, the Renaissance and Baroque burgher houses, and the climb up the White Tower for a view over the rooftops and the plain. The regional gallery and museum hold strong collections, the latter housed in a landmark Art Nouveau building by Jan Kotěra on the riverbank.
Hradec Králové is well connected by rail and makes an easy day trip or overnight from Náchod or Prague. It is also a natural gateway to the Giant Mountains and the Bohemian sandstone country to the north.