Prague Castle

Palace · HradčanyPrague, Czechia

Prague Castle holds a Guinness record as the largest ancient castle in the world, and the number that explains it is 570 metres — the length of the ridge it occupies, at an average of 128 metres across. Prince Bořivoj put a fortified seat here around 880, and every power since has added to it rather than replaced it: Přemyslid dukes, Holy Roman emperors, Habsburg governors, and Czechoslovak and Czech presidents from 1918 on. The result is not a building but a walled quarter, with three courtyards, two churches, a vineyard, a lane of miniature houses and a Gothic cathedral rising out of the middle of it. Walking in, the scale takes a while to register: you pass through a gate expecting a keep and find a street. The Old Royal Palace opens into Vladislav Hall, a room whose vault ripples overhead and which once held jousting tournaments indoors. Guards change at the gates on the hour. From the eastern stairs the city drops away below the red roofs of Malá Strana, and after dark the whole ridge is floodlit.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Crossing it takes longer than people plan for — the walk from the western gate to the eastern stairs runs the whole length of the ridge, courtyard after courtyard, with no way to cut across the middle.
The guard change at noon is the long version — every hour brings a short handover at the gates, but the midday one adds a fanfare from the windows above and a flag ceremony in the first courtyard.
Golden Lane empties at the end of the day — the cottage row is shoulder to shoulder from late morning; in the final hour the groups are gone and you can hear your own footsteps on it.
Leave by the eastern stairs rather than the way you came — the old staircase drops toward Malostranská, and every landing opens a different arrangement of red roofs, spires and river.

Things to do

1
Walk the ridge end to end
Enter at the western gate and keep going east rather than doubling back. You pass three courtyards, the cathedral, the palace and the vineyard in one line, and come out on the old stairs above Malostranská with the whole of Malá Strana beneath you.
2
Stand under the Vladislav vault
Go into the Old Royal Palace and give the big hall five minutes with your head back. The ribs cross and recross into shapes that have nothing to do with holding the ceiling up, and the room is emptier than anywhere else inside the walls.
3
Come back after dark
The courtyards stay open in the evening long after the interiors close, and the whole complex is floodlit. The crowds are gone, the lanes are lit, and from the Hradčanské náměstí side the ridge reads as one long illuminated wall above the city.
4
Go upstairs above Golden Lane
Number 22 was rented by Kafka's sister Ottla, and he worked there through the winter of 1916 and 1917. Above the cottages, inside the fortification wall itself, a long gallery runs the length of the lane hung with medieval armour, crossbows and figures in plate — reached by a staircase most people walk straight past on the way out.