Prague Castle

What it is

Prague Castle is not a building but a walled quarter on the ridge above the Vltava, and the Prague Castle Administration describes it as the largest coherent castle complex in the world at almost 70,000 square metres, a figure it attributes to the Guinness Book of World Records. It was most likely founded around 880 by Prince Bořivoj of the Premyslid dynasty, and what stands there now is a thousand years of building laid over the same footprint: remains of Romanesque work from the tenth century, Gothic reconstruction in the fourteenth, and the extensive First Republic renovations carried out by the Slovenian architect Josip Plečnik between 1918 and 1938. Repairs and reconstructions have continued since the Velvet Revolution. The site is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and is a Czech national cultural monument. It is also a working seat of government: the President of the Republic has an office here, and the castle's own Rules and Regulations reserve the right to close individual buildings, or the whole complex, for operational, technical, security or state-ceremonial reasons. A visitor should read the place as two overlapping things at once, a museum quarter and a functioning presidential residence, because the second is what closes the first at short notice.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What's inside

The Administration lists nine historical buildings open to visitors: St Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, Golden Lane, St George's Basilica, the Story of Prague Castle exhibition, the Powder Tower known as Mihulka, the Prague Castle Picture Gallery, Rosenberg Palace and the Great South Tower of the cathedral. Ticketing groups them rather than selling them one by one. The Main circuit covers the Old Royal Palace, St George's Basilica, Golden Lane and St Vitus Cathedral. A separate Permanent exhibitions ticket covers the Story of Prague Castle, the Castle Guard Exhibition, the Picture Gallery and Rosenberg Palace. The Great South Tower, sold as the Tower of the Cathedral with a View Gallery, is its own ticket, as is the Picture Gallery on its own. Around the buildings sit the gardens named in the Rules and Regulations: the Royal Garden, the South Gardens, the Upper and Lower Stag Moat, the Garden on the Bastion, the Riding School Terrace Garden and the St Wenceslas Vineyard. Exhibition halls occupy the Riding School, the Imperial Stables, the Theresian Wing and the Royal Summer Palace. All the buildings open to the public have barrier-free access except the White Tower, Daliborka, the Powder Tower, the Great South Tower and the defence corridors in Golden Lane.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

How long to spend

Allow three hours for the Main circuit. The Prague Castle Administration publishes no suggested visit length, so this is the guide's judgement, but it has an operator-shaped anchor behind it: the audioguide sold at the Information Centre in the 3rd Courtyard carries 96 stops and about three hours of recording, and guided tours with Castle guides are priced by the hour on the assumption that a visit runs to several. Three hours covers the four Main circuit buildings at a pace that leaves time to queue at each door, because the ticket admits the holder to every building once and each has its own entrance and its own bottleneck. Add an hour if the Permanent exhibitions ticket is also bought, and another forty minutes for the Great South Tower, which is a stair climb rather than a walk. Ninety minutes is enough for St Vitus Cathedral and the Old Royal Palace and nothing else. The complex itself is open far longer than the buildings, from six in the morning until ten at night, so the courtyards, the lanes and the views cost only the walking time and can be taken before or after the ticketed part.

Checked 2026-08-26

Season and crowds

The Administration runs two seasons. In the summer season, 1 April to 31 October, the historical buildings open 9.00 to 17.00; in the winter season, 1 November to 31 March, they open 9.00 to 16.00, and they close on 24 December. St Vitus Cathedral keeps those hours from Monday to Saturday but does not open until 12.00 on Sunday, with last entrance always twenty minutes before closing. The Great South Tower runs 10.00 to 18.00 in summer and 10.00 to 17.00 in winter, last entrance 17.30 and 16.30. The exhibition halls open 10.00 to 18.00 year round. The gardens are the strongest seasonal argument: the Royal Garden, Stag Moat and South Gardens open 10.00 to 19.00 from April to June, 10.00 to 20.00 in July and August, 10.00 to 19.00 in September and 10.00 to 17.00 in October, then close to the public entirely from 1 November to the end of February, reopening in March 10.00 to 17.00. The complex outside the buildings is open 6.00 to 22.00 every day of the year, which makes the hour before nine and the hour after the buildings shut the quietest time to be inside the walls.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Tickets

The price list in force is dated 1 March 2024. The Main circuit, covering the Old Royal Palace, St George's Basilica, Golden Lane and St Vitus Cathedral, costs 450 CZK for an adult, 300 CZK at the reduced rate and 950 CZK for a family. The Permanent exhibitions ticket, covering the Story of Prague Castle, the Castle Guard Exhibition, the Picture Gallery and Rosenberg Palace, costs 300, 200 and 700 CZK on the same three rates. The Picture Gallery alone and the Tower of the Cathedral with a View Gallery are each 200, 150 and 500 CZK. An audioguide is 350 CZK for three hours against a 500 CZK deposit, and a tour with a Castle guide is 250 CZK per person per hour on top of a valid ticket, with a minimum of four people. Tickets are valid for two days, admit the holder to each building once, and cannot be refunded. The reduced rate covers ages 6 to 16, full-time students to 26 inclusive and visitors aged 65 and over; a family is one to five children under 16 with at most two adults. Children under six, disability card holders and licensed EU guides with ticketed clients enter free. Entry to the complex outside the buildings is free.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Getting there

No car is needed and a car is close to useless here: the walkways inside the complex are a pedestrian zone and vehicle entry is regulated. The Administration names three tram stops nearby, Královský letohrádek, Pražský hrad and Pohořelec, and two metro stations, Malostranská and Hradčanská, and it says most visitors use tram 22 to Pražský hrad, then leave down the Old Castle Stairs to Malostranská. From the Pražský hrad stop it is a five-minute walk left to the Second Courtyard. The alternative that costs no climbing is tram 22 to Pohořelec and ten minutes downhill to Hradčany Square, entering by the Fourth Courtyard. The steepest approach is tram 22 to Malostranské náměstí, then Zámecká and Thunovská to the New Castle Stairs; the shortest from the metro is line A to Malostranská and the Old Castle Stairs up to the Na Opyši gate. In summer a fifth route runs from the Královský letohrádek stop through the Royal Garden, fifteen to twenty minutes to the Riding School. Whichever way is chosen, the complex can only be entered at designated points, and every route but Pohořelec involves stairs.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What to watch out for

Large baggage is the first problem. The Administration asks visitors not to bring it into the complex at all, and before entering a building luggage and umbrellas must be left where a place is provided. Anyone entering may be asked to undergo a security search by the Czech police, and refusing means not being let in. Weapons, explosives, pyrotechnics, placards, banners and flags are refused at the gate, as is heavily soiled clothing. Inside the buildings there is no eating or drinking, and no entering with an ice cream or an open drink. Bicycles, scooters, skateboards and Segways may not be ridden anywhere in the complex, and dogs must be leashed and muzzled and may not enter the buildings or gardens. Do not stand within half a metre of the honour guard at the gates. The Administration can close a building or the whole complex for operational or state-ceremonial reasons, which is worth checking against its Current closures page on the morning of a visit; that page listed nothing on 26 August 2026. One notice on the getting-here page announced tram works suspending the Pražský hrad and Královský letohrádek stops from 21 March to 17 July 2026, a period that has now ended.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Photography

The rules here are stricter than at most European sites of this size, and they are written down. Photography and filming are prohibited outright in the Story of Prague Castle exhibition, in the St Vitus Cathedral Treasury, in the Powder Tower and in the Prague Castle Picture Gallery. In every other building open to the public, photographing and filming are permitted only with a purchased licence, and even with one, flash, tripods and any other equipment such as lighting or a power supply are forbidden. Selfie sticks may not be used indoors at all. The Administration grants exceptions for scientific, documentary, cultural and commercial work by application and contract. The whole complex sits inside a no-fly zone and drones are banned for any purpose. What is left is the outdoors, and it is the better subject anyway: the courtyards are open from 6.00 to 22.00, so the low light at both ends of the day is available without a ticket, and the cathedral's south face and the Great South Tower take that light directly. The view back over Lesser Town from the ramp above the South Gardens is the one photograph most visitors come away with, and it needs no permission.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Where it is

Nearby

External links

• View on Wikidata