The true heart of the quarter, the sloping Malá Strana Square, is divided into two parts - upper and lower - by the Church of St Nicholas, a splendid Baroque building that presides over the square, the surrounding buildings contributing to attenuating its imposing mass. Aristocratic palaces and bourgeois Renaissance, Rococo and neo-Classical houses line the square, where the old Malá Strana town hall stands, now a cultural centre.