Prague · self-guided walk

The Royal Route

The most rewarding 90 minutes in Prague, following the old coronation path: from the Municipal House and the Powder Tower through Old Town Square, past the astronomical clock and the Klementinum, across the Charles Bridge to St Nicholas in Malá Strana, and up to Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral.

11 stops · 3.1 km · about 85 min

Distance and time are our curators' estimates for the whole walk, stops included.

The stops

The short version of each stop. In aiGuide, open Prague, choose “The Royal Route” and tap Begin walking tour; then lock your phone, and each story starts as you reach the stop.

1. 1Obecní dům

   Art Nouveau, 1905 to 1912

   

   Look up at the great semicircle over the entrance, where Karel Špillar's mosaic Homage to Prague glitters above the balcony, flanked by Ladislav Šaloun's sculptures of the nation's humiliation and its rebirth. Behind these doors Alfons Mucha painted the Lord Mayor's Hall, and Smetana Hall seats about 1,200 listeners.

   • Designed by Antonín Balšánek and Osvald Polívka; opened on 16 December 1912.
   • Czechoslovak independence was proclaimed here on 28 October 1918.

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2. 2Prašná brána

   Late Gothic, 1475; Neo-Gothic completion 1878 to 1886

   

   Stand under the vaulted passage, then step back to take in the dark sandstone tower, 65 metres tall. Its fronts carry statues of Bohemian kings; on the side facing Celetná Street stand George of Poděbrady and Vladislav II, who laid its foundation stone. A gallery 44 metres up, reached by 186 steps, looks over the Old Town.

   • Foundation stone laid in 1475, under King Vladislav II Jagiellon.
   • The tower is 65 metres tall, with a gallery 44 metres up.

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3. 3Kostel Panny Marie před Týnem

   Gothic, mid-14th century to 1511

   

   Above the arcaded houses on the east side of the square rise two dark spires, each ringed by eight smaller spires. Look at the gable between them for the gilded chalice, symbol of the Hussites. It went back up only in 2017, almost four hundred years after the first one was taken down in the Counter-Reformation.

   • Both towers rise 80 metres; the south tower was finished in 1511.
   • The Hussite preacher Jan Rokycana served here from 1427.

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4. 4Staroměstské náměstí

   Middle Ages to the 20th century

   

   Look down near the foot of the Town Hall tower for 27 white crosses set into the cobbles. They mark the scaffold where 27 leaders of the Bohemian revolt were executed on 21 June 1621. Then look up: the spires of Týn, the dome of Saint Nicholas and the pink and white Kinský Palace frame the square.

   • 27 leaders of the Bohemian Estates were executed here on 21 June 1621.
   • Three lords, seven knights and seventeen burghers died on the scaffold.

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5. 5Staroměstská radnice

   Gothic, 14th and 15th centuries

   

   Stand below the tower a few minutes before the hour. Death, a skeleton beside the clock face, tugs its bell rope; two little windows open and the apostles glide past; a gilded rooster crows to end the show. The blue, red and black dial behind them traces the sun, the moon and the zodiac.

   • Founded in 1338 with the permission of King John of Luxembourg.
   • The town hall tower is 69.5 metres high.

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6. 6Klementinum

   Jesuit Baroque, 1556 to 1773

   

   Look above the rooftops for the Astronomical Tower and the statue of Atlas on its top, bent under the sphere of the heavens. From this tower the Jesuits studied the sky, and Prague's weather has been recorded here since 1775, one of the longest such records in Central Europe.

   • The first twelve Jesuits arrived in Prague on 21 April 1556.
   • Rebuilt in two Baroque campaigns, from the 1650s and 1709 to 1726.

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7. 7Staroměstská mostecká věž

   Gothic, 14th century

   

   Stand on the Old Town side and look up at the east face. Saint Vitus stands on a little model of the bridge between two seated rulers: Emperor Charles IV, his aged head tilted towards one shoulder, and his son Wenceslas IV. Inside, 138 steps climb to a gallery overlooking the whole bridge.

   • Begun after 1357; sculpture carved by Peter Parler's workshop.
   • 47 metres high; 138 steps lead up to the gallery.

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8. 8Karlův most

   Gothic, 14th-15th century; Baroque statues 1683-1714

   

   You are walking the route that Bohemian coronation processions took for centuries. Find the bronze statue of John of Nepomuk on the north parapet: the reliefs on its base shine where countless hands have rubbed them, and a small metal cross set into the parapet close by marks where he is said to have been thrown into the river.

   • Foundation stone laid in 1357 under Emperor Charles IV.
   • About 516 metres long, resting on 16 arches.

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9. 9Kostel svatého Mikuláše na Malé Straně

   High Baroque, 18th century

   

   Look up at the green copper dome and the slender belfry beside it, both finished in the 1750s. The belfry, 79 metres tall, had a darker use under communism: the secret police watched the American and Yugoslav embassies from it. Inside stands the great organ that Mozart played in 1787.

   • Foundation stone laid in 1673; dome completed in 1752.
   • The belfry stands 79 metres tall.

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10. 10Pražský hrad

    Founded in the 9th century; Gothic, Renaissance and 18th-century Theresian rebuilding

    

    You are standing in the Second Courtyard, the crossroads of a castle that has governed Bohemia for more than a thousand years. Look at the Baroque fountain in the middle, carved by Jeroným Kohl in 1686: four gods of antiquity hold up its lower basin, and three lions lift the globe at the top.

    • First church, the Virgin Mary, built by Prince Bořivoj after 885
    • Vladislav Hall by Benedikt Rejt, 1490 to 1502, measures 62 by 16 metres

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11. 11Katedrála svatého Víta

    Gothic, 1344 to 1419; Neo-Gothic completion 1873 to 1929

    

    Walk round to the south side of the cathedral, facing the Third Courtyard. Above the triple-arched porch called the Golden Gate glitters a mosaic of the Last Judgement, made between 1370 and 1372; Charles IV and his wife Elizabeth kneel beneath Christ. Bohemian kings entered here on their way to be crowned.

    • Foundation stone laid on 21 November 1344; completed in 1929
    • Master builders Matthias of Arras, then Peter Parler from 1356

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