Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TWO CASTLE ARCHITECTS
Thesiteoftoday'sPragueCastlehasbeensuccessivelybuiltonsincethePřemyslidprinces
erected the first castle here in the ninth century, but two architects in particular bear re-
sponsibilityforitsappearancetoday.Thefirstis
NicolòPacassi
,courtarchitecttoEmpress
MariaTheresa(1740-80),whoseaustererestorationswenthandinhandwiththedeliberate
running down of the Hrad until it was little more than an administrative barracks. For the
Czechs, his grey-green eighteenth-century cover-up, which hides a variety of much older
buildings, is unforgivable. Less apparent, though no less controversial, is the hand of
Jo-
sip Plečnik
, the Slovene architect who was commissioned by T.G. Masaryk, president of
the newly founded Czechoslovak Republic, to restore and modernize the castle in his dis-
tinctive style in the 1920s. Most of his work can be found in the interior of the building,
primarily in the state rooms where the public is not normally permitted, though his early
twentieth-century features do interrupt Pacassi's bland facades at various points.
ESSENTIALS
Opening hours
The castle precinct is open daily (April-Oct 5am-midnight; Nov-March
6am-11pm). Most individual sights within the precinct all keep the same hours (daily:
April-Oct 9am-5pm; Nov-March 9am-3pm), but there are exceptions.
Visiting
You can wander freely through most of the streets, courtyards and gardens of the
castle and watch the Changing of the Guard without a ticket. Of the paying sights, you can
only visit each one once on any one ticket, but in any order; there's a handy map on the back
of each ticket. The Lobkovický palác, Výstava Svatovítského pokladu and temporary exhib-
itions, such as those held in Císařská konírna and Jízdárna, all have different opening hours
and separate admission charges.
