Prague, the third-largest city in Europe, immediately after Rome and Constantinople. When? At the time of Emperor Charles IV (1346–1378), long before Contantinople fell to the Turks, more than a hundred years before the Age of Discoveries, almost a hundred years after the last crusade, long before Renaissance, in the outgoing Middle Ages. Trade with India and China went through its traditional routes across Middle East and along the Silk Road. It was a time when Christopher Columbus’ grandfather may just have been born.
Not many cities can claim a history like that.