Nestled in the elbow of the Vltava river, below the panelaks of Bohnice, Troja is a quiet and villagelike neighborhood just four kilometers (about two and a half miles) north of Prague city center as the crow flies. Nowadays, with less than 800 inhabitants and only one policeman, Troja still has the air of a small village. It consists mostly of private villas owned by old-time residents and retirees, although recently the neighborhood has been attracting a younger, upwardly mobile crowd as well as members of the foreign diplomatic community. The area was mentioned for the first time in the historical record in 1197 as the village of Zadni Ovenec, which belonged to the Premonstratensian Order (a monastic order founded in 1120 by St. Norbert in Premontre, France). Since the Middle Ages, the village was known for its vineyards, which can still be found there today. The vineyard of St. Klara, named for a 17th-century chapel perched on the hilltop, lies on a hillside above the Troja chateau and still produces excellent trojsky ryzlink and kabinetni burgundske. After the turmoils of the Hussite wars, the village passed into the hands of the Austrian Sternberg noble family and was renamed Troja after the Baroque chateau they built on the site. From the 1920s and during the communist era, Troja became known as an upscale neighborhood, boasting such famous residents as the winning Olympic family of Zatopeks, film director Vera Chytilova, and artist Jan Kavan. The neighborhood's most famous resident was the last communist president Gustav Husak, who lived there briefly in the 1970s when he was still the chairman of the Communist Party central committee.

The Baroque Troja chateau is the pride of the district. Count Vaclav Vojtech Sternberk built the summer palace between 1679 and 1685 in order to have a place to host Emperor Leopold I, who used to hunt just across the river in the royal hunting grounds now known as the Stromovka park. Sternberg spared no expense on his attempt to cull favor with the emperor. The interior of the carmine and ivory-colored chateau is full of opulent frescoes. Outside, a magnificent stairway decorated with Baroque statues graces the opulent French-style gardens. Alas, the emperor never actually visited Troja. Now the chateau belongs to the National Gallery and houses a collection of 19th-century Czech art.

The Prague Zoo lies on the riverbank just across the street from the Troja chateau. Today, its 64 hectares (158 acres) are home to 378 different kinds of animals, of which 59 are on the IUCN (International Union of Concervation of Nature) list of endangered species. The pride of the Prague Zoo are 10 Przhevalski's horses. These natives of the Mongolian steppes are the last surviving ancestors of the domestic horse. They have been exterminated in their natural habitat and survive only in captivity. Above the chateau, the Prague Botanical Garden covers 55 acres, of which, unfortunately, only about three acres are opened to the public. In addition to a broad array of exotic plants, the garden offers a prehistoric village and other educational projects for children. A 2,200 square meter (23,680 square feet) greenhouse which will display several different climates is due to be finished by the end of the year. The land below the zoo, on either side of the river, lies in the romantic-sounding zone of the hundred-year water (stoleta voda), a floodplain, which, according to folk wisdom, gets washed over by devastating floods every 100 years. This has proved a blessing in disguise for Troja, because it has left the area along the river undeveloped and free for camping, bike riding and horseback riding.