Kampa Island sits in the Lesser Town and is separated from it by a picturesque mill race called Devil's Channel (Čertovka). The island covers 2.65 ha. It is also an artificial island.
For a long time Kampa had no name or was simply called "the Island". The origin of the name Kampa is not entirely clear; it appears only in the second half of the 18th century. It may derive from the Latin campus (a flat field, plain) or the Old Czech zákampí (a shaded place); it may also relate to the name of the burgher Tycho Gansgeb of Kampa, who owned a house here in the 17th century.
The oldest written references to Kampa date back to 1169. Natural alluvial deposits and fill, especially after the great fire of the Lesser Town and Hradčany in 1541, slowly raised the island. The first features on Kampa itself were gardens. From the 15th century, mills and mill gardens began to be built on the island. Museum Kampa is now housed in Sovovy Mlýny. In 1884 the island was opened up from Charles Bridge by a new staircase. After World War II the gardens were connected and turned into a public park.
Kampa also has gardens such as the Odkolkovská Garden and the adjoining Kaiserstein Garden, in which today's Liechtenstein Palace stands, with the so-called Werich House next door — once home to Jan Werich and earlier to Josef Dobrovský and other famous figures. Near Sovovy Mlýny stands a smaller house, originally a ferryman's cottage, now hosting a fish restaurant. Worth mentioning too is the resident of the U Zlatých nůžek house, painter and illustrator Adolf Kašpar.
You can take a cruise around Kampa Island on one of our unique small hybrid-powered boats.
