The Beethoven and Mozart manuscripts
Original handwritten scores, including the Eroica with Beethoven's own corrections — objects one rarely gets to see.
Skot — CC BY-SA 4.0 · VitVit — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — CC BY 2.0 · Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — CC BY 2.0
Yes if you have an extra hour: the collection is better than visitors expect, the audio guide is excellent, and the café view alone earns its place. On a tight schedule, prioritise the cathedral and Old Royal Palace.
Short classical recitals at midday in the Baroque hall with a small ensemble — ideal if you want a musical experience without a whole evening. Tickets are separate and booking is advised.
Partly: the arms hall and the musical instruments hold them, but the paintings and documents less so. The audio guide sometimes offers a simplified children's track — ask at the entrance.
At the end: it is the last building on the eastern castle route, and from there you walk down the old stairs to Malostranská. Make it your final stop, with coffee on the terrace.
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Lobkowicz Palace is the only privately owned building inside the walls of Prague Castle, and its story is stranger than its contents. The Lobkowicz family is among the oldest Bohemian noble houses, and its property was confiscated twice in the 20th century: first by the Nazis in 1939, then by the communist government in 1948. After 1989 the collection was recovered piece by piece through years of legal process, and the family runs it themselves today. The result is a museum with unexpected holdings: paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Canaletto and Velázquez, a collection of arms, rare porcelain and musical instruments. Its greatest treasure, though, is an extraordinary music archive: original manuscripts by Beethoven — one of the family was his patron — and Mozart, including a score of the Eroica symphony carrying Beethoven's own corrections. The museum is professionally done to a high standard: a free audio guide narrated by members of the family telling the stories of the objects personally, and one of the best audio guides you will hear anywhere. Daily midday concerts are held in the Baroque hall. And do not skip the café: its terrace looks over the whole of Prague and is one of the finest views in the entire castle.
Original handwritten scores, including the Eroica with Beethoven's own corrections — objects one rarely gets to see.
One of the collection's best-known works, and among the few Pieter Bruegel the Elder paintings outside the great museums.
An open view over the whole of Prague from inside the castle — one of the best places in the city to stop.
The audio guide tells how the collection was seized twice and recovered after 1989 — the Czech 20th century through one family.
Jiřská 3, inside Prague Castle, Prague 1