Prague Castle

Where it sits. The castle occupies a long, narrow spur above the left bank of the Vltava in Hradčany, running roughly 570 metres east to west and never more than about 130 metres wide. That geometry explains everything about the visit: it is not a single building but a walled ribbon of courtyards, churches, palaces and lanes, and the Guinness-cited claim that it is the largest ancient castle complex in the world rests on this footprint. The main gate on Hradčanské náměstí faces west; the eastern end drops down the Old Castle Steps towards Malostranská. From the ramparts on the south side the whole of Malá Strana, the river and the Old Town lie below in one sweep, and this is the view that most Prague photographs are actually taken from.

The story behind it. A fortified seat has stood here since roughly 880, and the site has housed Bohemian princes and kings, Holy Roman emperors, Czechoslovak presidents and, since 1993, the head of state of the Czech Republic. St Vitus Cathedral, begun in 1344 under Charles IV with Matthias of Arras and continued by Peter Parler, was only completed in 1929 — the western facade and its rose window are a twentieth-century conclusion to a fourteenth-century project. The Old Royal Palace holds Vladislav Hall, whose extraordinary looping rib vault by Benedikt Ried was finished in 1502 and was wide enough for indoor jousting. The Bohemian Chancellery next door is where the Second Defenestration of Prague took place on 23 May 1618, an act that helped start the Thirty Years' War. In the interwar republic, President Masaryk commissioned the Slovene architect Jože Plečnik to reshape the courtyards and gardens; his granite obelisk, bull staircase and paving are the quiet modernist layer under everything older.

On screen. The castle's most precise screen credit is one that fools people: in The Illusionist (2006), set in imperial Vienna, the front gates of Crown Prince Leopold's Hofburg palace are the gates of Prague Castle. The film was shot almost entirely in the Czech Republic — Vienna itself is played by Prague and by the small Bohemian town of Tábor, the childhood village scenes were filmed in Český Krumlov, the crown prince's country castle is Konopiště near Benešov, and the remaining work was done at Barrandov Studios. Prague's castle district also supplied streets for Amadeus (1984) and for the 1995 Prague shoot of Mission: Impossible, and the Hradčany skyline has stood in for Vienna, Berlin and Moscow more times than any inventory records. The lesson for anyone matching frames to places is a useful one: in central European period films, the city you are told you are seeing is very often Prague.

What you actually see today. Entry to the courtyards, the castle lanes and the gardens is free; the ticketed circuit covers St Vitus, the Old Royal Palace, the Romanesque St George's Basilica and Golden Lane, the row of tiny sixteenth-century cottages built into the northern wall where Franz Kafka worked in his sister's house at number 22 during 1916 and 1917. In the cathedral, look for the Chapel of St Wenceslas with its walls set with polished semi-precious stones, and for Alfons Mucha's 1931 stained-glass window in the north aisle, an Art Nouveau outlier among medieval glass. The Great South Tower can be climbed by a tight spiral stair to a gallery just under the bells, which puts you level with the cathedral's flying buttresses and above every roof in the city. The changing of the guard at the main gate happens hourly, with the full ceremony, fanfare and flag at noon. North of the moat, across the Powder Bridge, lie the Royal Garden and the Belvedere summer palace of 1538–1565, the purest Italian Renaissance building north of the Alps, with the sgraffito-covered Ball Game Hall on the way. At the eastern end, the Lobkowicz Palace is the only privately owned building inside the walls and holds the family's paintings, instruments and Beethoven manuscripts.

Getting there and timing. Tram 22 to Pražský hrad drops you at the northern side and saves the climb; the alternative is the walk up Nerudova street from Malostranské náměstí, or the Old Castle Steps from Malostranská metro. Security screening at the entrances means queues from mid-morning onwards in summer; arriving at opening, or after four in the afternoon, changes the experience completely. Ticket circuits are valid for two consecutive days. The complex is cobbled throughout and involves stairs at almost every historic interior, so step-free coverage is partial — the cathedral nave and the main courtyards are accessible, Golden Lane and the palace interiors much less so.