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.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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.