Escape from the castle crowds
Minutes from the northern gate to somewhere locals sit rather than tourists.
Daniel Baránek — CC BY-SA 3.0 · ŠJů — CC BY 4.0 · ŠJů — CC BY 4.0 · ŠJů — CC BY 4.0
A nineteenth-century Czech poet and the founder of Romanticism in Czech literature, best known for the poem May. He died at twenty-six. His monument became a tradition for couples to visit on the first of May and kiss beneath it, a custom still alive in Prague today.
After the castle, leave by the north side into the Royal Garden and then the Chotek Gardens, and walk down from there to Malá Strana and Charles Bridge. The route is almost entirely downhill, and it turns the end of a crowded day into a quiet hour.
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Prague's first public park, opened in 1833 on the orders of the governor Karl Chotek, who wanted it as open ground for the city's inhabitants rather than for one class. That was a modern idea at the time: Europe's great gardens belonged to palaces and monasteries, and opening green space to everyone was a social decision, not simple ornament. The park lies directly north of Prague Castle, on a slope looking over the Vltava valley and the Malá Strana district. It holds a romantic monument to the poet Karel Hynek Mácha, and shaded paths under old trees. Its practical value is as the immediate escape from the castle crowds: you leave by the northern gate and within minutes you are somewhere Praguers sit rather than tourists. Free and open, it connects to the Royal Garden and to a path descending into Malá Strana.
Minutes from the northern gate to somewhere locals sit rather than tourists.
The slope looks over the Vltava and the roofs of Malá Strana.
A romantic memorial to the best-known Czech poet, a traditional first-of-May destination.
Chotkova, north of Prague Castle