Key words: Prague, Budapest, guidebook, heritage trail, socialist heritage, built heritage Abstract: The thesis focuses on the heritagization of the socialist heritage: how the representation of socialist heritage has changed over years since the emergence of the socialist modernist architecture in East-Central Europe and how the approach towards socialist heritage is currently changing in the wake of the heritagization process. An asymmetrical comparative analysis of Prague and Budapest highlights the similarities and differences in the two cities' history, particularly in the socialist era. The choice of the cities was based on the facts that both cities are historical capitals, and neither Budapest's nor Prague's old town was changed dramatically during the Socialist period. The research deals with the heritagization process of socialist heritage from two angles: it combines analytical and practical aims. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with the heritagization process of socialist heritage, the history of guidebooks and the emergence of heritage trails as important part of the new tourism approach. On the analytical level, the thesis focuses on the visual analysis of the presentation of socialist architecture in guidebooks and the promotion for the socialist heritage before and after the change...