Wallenstein Garden

Albrecht von Wallenstein had twenty-three houses and a brick kiln demolished between 1623 and 1630 to build his palace and its garden below Prague Castle, on a scale meant to say something about his position, and the garden survives. It is laid out formally with clipped hedges and gravel walks around a large sala terrena, a triple-arched open loggia with a frescoed ceiling, at the head of it. Along one side runs the dripstone wall: an artificial grotto face of tufa and stalactite-like formations several metres high, in which grotesque faces, animals and shapes are worked into the surface, so the more you look at it the more emerges. The bronzes on the parterre are copies - the originals were taken to Sweden in 1648 and are at Drottningholm. Peacocks live in the garden and there is a pond with carp. The Senate sits in the palace.

History

The palace was built in 1623-1630 for Albrecht von Wallenstein, Duke of Mecklenburg, who made his name and fortune as commander-in-chief of the imperial forces in the Thirty Years' War and lived in it for only a year before his death in 1634; to make room he razed a whole quarter of houses, gardens and brickworks, and the palace was meant to rival Prague Castle. Having travelled in Italy, he used Italian architects and artists: Andrea Spezza, probably the main architect, succeeded in 1628 by Niccolo Sebregondi, the Florentine Baccio del Bianco for the frescoes, and Giovanni Pieroni, to whom the garden, the sala terrena and the riding school are attributed; the garden has an aviary, a grotto and a fountain by Adrian de Vries. Wallenstein's widow sold the palace to his nephew, and it stayed with the family for generations; today it houses the Senate, the riding school is a branch of the National Gallery, restoration of the main building began in 1999, and the gardens have been reconstructed (Wikipedia, Wallenstein Palace).

What's there

• A dripstone grotto wall - tufa worked with grotesque faces and animals.
• The sala terrena - a frescoed triple-arched loggia at the head of the garden.
• Copies on the parterre - the original bronzes went to Sweden in 1648.
• Peacocks and a carp pond - free-ranging birds on the gravel walks.

When to go

April to October. Two hours.

Things to know

The garden is seasonal and closed in winter. Parliamentary business closes it without notice. The palace itself is the Senate and is open only on limited days. It is free, which is rare here.

Nearby

Prague Castle is above; Charles Bridge is a short walk.

Key facts