Prague Castle

Prague Castle is the castle complex on Hradčany hill above the Vltava in Prague, the seat of Czech kings and today the official residence of the Czech president, covering about 70,000 square metres. Its courtyards are free to walk, and the main circuit ticket for St Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace and Golden Lane takes three to four hours.

Prague Castle crowns the Hradčany hill on the left bank of the Vltava, above the Malá Strana district. Its history begins around 870, when the Church of the Virgin Mary, the first walled building on the site, was raised under the early Přemyslid princes. The castle grew over more than a thousand years as successive rulers added palaces, churches and fortifications in every major style from Romanesque to 20th-century modernism.

It was the seat of the kings of Bohemia and, under Charles IV in the 14th century and Rudolf II around 1600, of the Holy Roman Emperors, when Prague became a centre of art and science. In 1618 Protestant nobles threw two imperial governors from a castle window, the Defenestration of Prague that helped start the Thirty Years War. In 1918 Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk made it the seat of the Czechoslovak president, and the Slovene architect Jože Plečnik then renovated parts of the palace and its gardens. It is part of the Historic Centre of Prague World Heritage Site.

The complex is about 570 metres long and on average 130 metres wide, around 70,000 square metres in all. St Vitus Cathedral fills the third courtyard. Charles IV had its foundation stone laid in 1344, when Prague became an archbishopric. The architects Matthias of Arras and Peter Parler led the Gothic work, which stopped during the Hussite wars and resumed in 1872, and the cathedral was finished only in 1929. Inside are an Art Nouveau stained-glass window by Alfons Mucha and the hidden chamber where the Bohemian Crown Jewels are kept.

The Old Royal Palace contains Vladislav Hall, vaulted between 1493 and 1502 to designs by Benedikt Ried, and reached by the Riders' Staircase, built wide enough for knights to ride up on horseback for indoor tournaments. St George's Basilica, founded in the first half of the 10th century, is the oldest surviving church in the castle. Golden Lane is a row of tiny houses built against the castle wall, where Franz Kafka worked in number 22 in 1916 and 1917.

The courtyards and gardens are free and open long hours, while the cathedral interior beyond the entrance area, the palace, the basilica and Golden Lane need a circuit ticket from the information centres or online. The changing of the guard at the main gate draws crowds. Come early in the morning or late in the day to avoid the crowds in the cathedral, and allow three to four hours.

Trams 22 and 23 stop at Pražský hrad and Pohořelec, though track works can divert them, so check before travelling; metro Line A to Malostranská leaves a climb up the Old Castle Steps. Parking near the castle is very limited. The courtyards are cobbled but largely step-free, and the cathedral, the Old Royal Palace and parts of Golden Lane have accessible entrances.