Through the Gardens of the Prague Castle

Updated: 3 months ago

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All Prague Castle Walking Tours:

  1. In Brief Across the Centuries
  2. Through the Three Castle Courtyards
  3. St. Vitus Cathedral
  4. From Vikárka to Golden Lane and the Old Castle Steps
  5. Through the Gardens of the Prague Castle
Prague Castle - Na Valech garden (zahrada Na Valech)

We enter the gardens on the southern hillside by the main entrance from the Hradčanské náměstí (Hradčany Square) at the end of the zámecké schody (the Castle Steps). The original approach to the Castle through earthworks and ditches used to be here. During the Renaissance the fortifications lost their military significance and so, on the western side, the ditches were filled in by order of the Prague governor Ferdinand Tyrolský, and partly even by debris from the great Castle fire in 1541. In 1562 a Renaissance Rajská zahrada (Garden of Eden)was created, where the bath-house of Emperor Rudolf II used to be as well as a herald's tower from where fanfares were sounded on ceremonial occasions and at midday when the Emperor had lunch.

The present appearance of the garden derives from Plečnik's modifications in 1920-1931. Behind the entrance gate we descend the monumental staircase to a 40 ton granite decorative bowl and further on to a Baroque fountain from 1703. In the south east corner of the garden we can see a little summer house for observing the view, built in 1617 for Emperor Matyáš. It has a wooden Renaissance ceiling, decorated with the emblems of the countries of the Emperor's domains. Sometimes it is mistaken for the demolished tower of the heralds.

From the Mathyáš summer house stretches the garden Na Valech, laid out in 1861 in the style of an English park on the site of filled in Castle fortifications. At its beginning is a summer house with columns and further on a large viewing terrace, founded on the site of a mediaeval bastion. It is possible to descend from the terrace into a part of the Hartig Garden with a music pavilion built in the 1720s.

Under the Ludvík Wing of the Old Palace are sited 2 obelisks built by Emperor Ferdinand III on the spot where the defenestrated governors fell. By the path we see the obelisk of Jaroslav of Bořita from Martinice and under the window the obelisk of Vilém Slavata from Chlum. The eastern part of the garden ends with the Moravská bašta (Moravian Bastion), on which Plečnik built a 12 metre high monolith with an ionian capital and a gilded ball. From the viewing terrace we can see not only the roofs of the Small Quarter, but also the terraced palace gardens laid out in the Baroque period on the slopes below Prague Castle.

On the left before the main entrance into the Castle, a small garden, Na Baště (On the Bastion) is situated. It is named after an artillery emplacement whose foundations are preserved in front of the Rococo entrance to the Spanish Hall. The garden was founded in 1861 and the present arrangement is by Josef Plečnik from the first half of the 20th century. Below the garden and along the whole length of Prague Castle stretches the deep Jelení Příkop (Stag Moat), which in fact is the steep valley of the Brusnice stream. It afforded the Castle a perfect, natural fortification till the end of the Middle Ages. With the development of artillery it lost its purpose and was subsequently dedicated to the rearing of game animals.

From the garden we reach the Prašný Most (Powder Bridge) leading across the moat. Nowadays in fact it is only a rampart along which a path leads to the northern entrance to the Castle.

The bridge was built here in 1535 when the new Prague park was established. It was covered so that it would not get dusty and it ended 12 feet in front of the Castle Gate from where it was completed with a drawbridge. It was not well kept and therefore quickly deteriorated; in 1549 a Latin poet and preacher Simon Fagellus Boček even fell through it and died as a result of his fall. During the reign of Rudolf II a wooden passage was built for his personal use, in the lower part of the bridge and the bridge became two storied. Later it was repaired many times and during Maria Theresa's reign it was demolished and replaced by today's bridge over the ramparts, from which an interesting view can be obtained of St. Vítus Cathedral and the formidable late Gothic fortifications of the Castle and the tower Mihulka.

Behind the bridge on the left stands the baroque Jízdárna (Riding school) built between 1694-1695 to a design by Jean Baptist Mathey. The building's arcaded wing was used as an observation post for the summer riding school and today is a viewing terrace. A bit further on, a gate stood from 1791 through which Rudolf's bažantnice (Pheasant Farm) could be reached as well as two lakes for breeding fish and water fowl.

In 1723, behind the Riding School in “Mariánské Hradby” (the Marian Walls) a huge wooden theatre was built where on the occasion of the coronation of Charles VI an opera was staged by Jan Josef Fuchs “Constanza e fortezza”. The stage designer was the famous creator of stage sets, the architect Giuseppe Galli Bibiena. The extensive scenic backdrops fastened to rotating boards like pages in a book, introduced the feeling of space with idealised Roman architecture, gardens and military encampments. This production has never received proper recognition for its unique contribution to Prague's theatrical history.

On the right behind the bridge, the Rudolf Theatre stood until 1757, connected to the Castle by the covered passage in the bridge. Further on is the cottage of the Royal Gardener with Renaissance sgraffito, behind which is the entrance into the Královská zahrada (Royal Garden). Noteworthy also are the other buildings behind the entrance to Lví Dvůr (The Lion Court), built between 1581-1583 by the Emperor Rudolf II. Apart from the lions, three leopards (the gift of the Russian Tsar), a tiger an orang-utan and other wild animals were kept here. In a grove of fruit trees behind the court parrots used to sit in the branches tied with a golden chain to prevent them flying away.

Under the supervision of Giovanni Spazio the Královská zahrada (The Royal Garden) was founded in 1541 by Ferdinand I on the site of an earlier vineyard. Many rare plants and trees were grown and from 1563 for the first time in Europe even before their spread to Holland, tulips were grown here whose bulbs had been obtained by the Emperor Rudolf from Constantinople.

Tropical plants were grown in greenhouses, an orangerie and a fig house. Three dozen pineapples even saved the garden from destruction! In 1741 during the Franco-Prussian occupation the resident gardener made a gift of them to the Prussian general Puller, billeted in the Belvedere. The garden lay-out is completed with various sculptural decorations: the Hercules Fountain by Jan Jiří Bendl from 1670, an allegorical sculpture of Noc (Night) by Matyáš Bernard Braun and a terrace with ornamental sandstone vases from the workshop of the same artist. Braun also created groups of lions by the entrance.

In the garden stands the Renaissance Velká míčovna (The Great Ball-game House) founded between 1567-1569 by the architect Bonifac Wohlmut “For the noble sport of bending the body”. It was damaged by fire in May 1945 and was restored in the 1950s. Today it is considered a rarity, that among various mythological and allegorical figures on the sgraffito facade, the restorer has included an allegory of “The socialist five year plan” with the sickle and the hammer.

Through the garden we continue to the Královský letohrádek (the Royal Belvedere) the most pristine Italian Renaissance architecture north of the Alps. It was founded by Emperor Ferdinand I according to the design of Paolo della Stella and built by several architects between 1538 to 1564. The building, considered as a space for relaxation, with a ball room on the first floor, is surrounded by arcades with rich figurative and ornamental relief decoration, drawing on themes from mythology, history and from hunting and genre subjects. The remarkable Renaissance roof was designed in the shape of a ship's hull turned upside down and covered in copper plates. In the centre of a fine Renaissance garden in front of the Summer House stands the renowned Zpívající fontána (Singing Fountain) by Francesco Terzio and cast by Tomáš Jaroš between 1564-1568. The sound of the water drops falling on the bell shaped bowl of the fountain can best be heard singing if we bend down under the bowl of the fountain.

From the Belvedere we follow the street U letohrádku královny Anny (At the Belvedere of Queen Anne) to the Písecká Brána (The Pisek Gate) - a remnant of the vast Baroque fortification of Prague. Its width allowed for a pathway on the top of the fortifications which enabled a rapid deployment of defenders to any threatened place. From the gate we can descend directly to the metro station Hradčanská, where this walk through the Prague Castle ends.