Description

Essentials about Prague Castle in brief

Prague Castle (cz. “Pražský hrad”) is the main sight of the Czech capital and definitely belongs to those sights of the world that every traveler should have seen once in his/her life. After all, the castle enthroned in the heart of Prague on the castle hill Hradčany is considered the largest enclosed castle area in the world. Throughout history, generations of master builders created beautiful buildings in a wide variety of styles on the castle, which was founded as early as the 9th century, such as St. Vitus Cathedral, St. George’s Basilica and the Old Royal Palace. However, Prague Castle is not only a unique architectural highlight, but also has always been the political center of Bohemia or the Czech Republic. The castle was the seat of Roman dukes and kings, as well as two emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, and today houses the residence of the President of the Czech Republic. Such an architectural-historical-political heavyweight is, of course, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The history of Prague Castle

The first buildings in Prague Castle from the 9th to the 11th century

The oldest written reference to Prague Castle is the news about the foundation of St. Mary’s Church by the first historically documented Přemyslid prince Bořivoj even before the year 885. However, the central and eastern part of Hradcany was already settled before the onset of written sources at the end of the 9th century. The oldest phase of settlement, which began at the latest in the middle of the 9th century, was completed by the construction of a wooden earthen wall at the latest in the first decades of the 10th century. During the first large-scale reconstruction, a wood-earth wall about five meters wide with a stone facing was built. Archaeological analyses date this wall to the second half of the 9th century and the first third of the 10th century.

The second church building on the castle is St. George’s Basilica in the eastern part of the castle, donated by Prince Vratislav I before 920. The third sacral building was the St. Vitus Rotunda, built around 930. Further written information about the fortification of the castle is available only from the middle of the 11th century. There is evidence of the construction of the first stone wall in the 11th century. Whether this wall already enclosed the entire castle hill is not historically known.

Prague Castle as a royal residence from the 11th to the 17th century

Around 1070, the prince and first Czech king Vratislav II moved his residence from Prague Castle to Vyšehrad, probably due to power disputes with his brother Bishop Jaromír. However, the castle remained the seat of the bishops of Prague. A large-scale Romanesque reconstruction into a stone castle took place in the reign of Soběslav I in 1135 in parallel with an extension of Vyšehrad. Probably Soběslav already returned to the Prague Castle at the end of his reign, but at the latest his successor Vladislav II in the middle of the 12th century.

After a devastating fire in 1303, which destroyed large parts of Prague Castle, the royal residence remained unused. A new significant stage in the history of the castle began under King Charles IV. Charles IV had the castle rebuilt from 1333. First of all, the Royal Palace was remodeled again. And in 1344, when the bishopric of Prague was elevated to an archbishopric, the construction of St. Vitus Cathedral began. However, already under his son Wenceslas IV the interest in the castle died out again. Wenceslas had a new royal court built at the eastern exit of the old town, to which he moved in 1383 and which served as the residence of the Czech rulers until 1483.

After a brief Habsburg intermezzo, the royal house of the Jagiellonians, which already provided the Polish king, came to rule Bohemia. Under Vladislav II Jagiello, who also became king of Bohemia in 1471, the Renaissance took hold in Central Europe. Prague Castle was expanded and the royal court moved from the royal court in the old town back to the castle in 1483. At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, the master builder Benedikt Ried built the Vladislav Hall in the Old Royal Palace, probably the most important Renaissance hall north of the Alps. The last medieval heyday lasted until 1541, when the castle was once again destroyed in a major fire. Under the art-loving Emperor Rudolf, the castle experienced a last period of prosperity before the Thirty Years’ War.

The Defenestration of Prague

On May 23, 1618, an event occurred in Prague Castle that was to have far-reaching consequences for Bohemia and plunged the whole of Europe into decades of warfare: the Prague Defenestration. The 16th century Ludwig Wing still houses the room from whose windows the three governors of Emperor Ferdinand II were thrown by Protestant estates. The Defenestration of Prague is generally considered to have triggered the Thirty Years’ War, at the end of which the Habsburg dynasty took power over Bohemia and Prague Castle.

Prague Castle from the 18th to the 20th century

In the 18th century the castle underwent another architectural change when the entrance courtyard was redesigned for Empress Maria Theresa. In the 19th century, Emperor Ferdinand I lived in the castle after he handed over the reign to his nephew Franz Joseph in 1848. At other times, the imperial palace functioned as barracks.

After the end of World War I, the castle was rebuilt in 1919 as the seat of the President of the Czechoslovak Republic, with changes to the levels of the castle courtyards and their paving. Finally, in the 1920s, the first systematic archaeological excavations and investigations of Hradcany began.

The sights of Prague Castle

The castle courtyards

Today, Prague Castle is the official residence of the Czech president and, with around two million visitors a year, the most visited monument in the Czech Republic. If you want to, you can easily spend several days in the castle complex with its countless historic buildings. The buildings are grouped around three castle courtyards as well as St. George’s Square and St. George’s Lane. In the innermost courtyard there is the Gothic St. Vitus Cathedral, the Gothic Vladislav Hall, the Mrákotín Monolith (an obelisk commemorating the victims of the First World War). In the second courtyard of the castle there is the baroque Old Royal Palace and the also baroque Holy Cross Chapel and the Castle Gallery. On St. George’s Square is the Basilica of the same name. And finally, in Georgigasse are Palais Sternberg (part of the National Gallery) and Palais Lobkowicz (part of the art collections of the princely family). By the way, all the main sights of Prague Castle, such as St. Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace and St. George’s Basilica are described on their own subpages.

The Towers and the Golden Lane

The northern edge of the castle area is bordered by a fortification with the Gothic and Renaissance Mihulka Powder Tower and the two Gothic towers White Tower and Daliborka. Bordered by these two towers is the famous Golden Lane, with its small Gothic and Renaissance houses.

The gardens of Prague Castle

If you need a little mental and physical rest after visiting so many historical sights, you should stroll through the gardens that surround Prague Castle. These consist of several garden complexes. One is a complex of gardens directly adjacent to the castle, which merge into the two districts of Hradčany and Malá Strana On the other hand, in the immediate neighborhood are the so-called Palace Gardens below Prague Castle. Most of the gardens are connected with each other, either by gates or by stairs, if they are terraced.

Website

hrad.cz

Opening hours

Opening hours Apr. – Oct.:

Admission fees

* Children (Ages 6 – 16), Students and Seniors (Ages 64 and above)

** Max. 2 adults + max. 5 children ages 15 and under

The Main circuit includes admission to the Old Royal Palace, St. George’s Basilica, the Golden Lane and St. Vitus Cathedral.

The Permanent exhibitions include admission to the Story of Prague Castle, the Castle Guard Exhibition, the Prague Castle Picture Gallery and Rosenberg Palace.

Address

Getting there

By public transport:

Metro line A: Stop Malostranská

Tram lines 22 and 23: Stop Pražský hrad

Bus line 192: Stop Nerudova

By car:

There are no car parks in the immediate vicinity of Prague Castle.