Hradčany — Castle District

What it is

The Castle District — a town in its own right until 1784, spread along the plateau west of the Castle gates. It is the smallest and quietest of Prague's four historic towns: a few streets of canons' houses, palaces and monasteries that never developed ordinary city life, because their whole purpose was the court next door.

What is here

Prague Castle itself, by the usual measure the largest ancient castle complex in the world at around seventy thousand square metres — less a castle than a walled town containing St Vitus Cathedral (begun 1344, finished only in 1929), the Old Royal Palace with the Vladislav Hall, St George's Basilica and the tiny painted houses of the Golden Lane. Outside the walls: Strahov Monastery, whose Theological and Philosophical halls are the most beautiful library rooms in the country and which brews its own beer at the monastery brewery; the Loreto pilgrimage complex with its carillon; the Černín Palace facing it; and Nový Svět, a lane of small painted cottages that is the quarter at its least visited.

What it is like

Coach-tour Prague between roughly nine and four, moving along one fixed corridor from the tram stop through the courtyards. Step off that corridor — Nový Svět, the Loreto square, the orchards toward Petřín — and you can be nearly alone. After dark the district empties almost completely; there are barely any residents and correspondingly almost nothing open. The great exception is U Černého vola, an old beer hall opposite the Loreto that pours some of the cheapest beer in central Prague as if the last fifty years had not happened.

Practical

Tram 22 or 23 to Pražský hrad is the effortless way up; the alternatives are the climb up Nerudova or the Old Castle Stairs. Castle courtyards are free to enter; the buildings need a ticket, and the airport-style security at the gates queues badly mid-morning — come before nine or after four.

Staying up here buys silence, views and Baroque surroundings, at the price of dead evenings and a hill between you and every dinner worth having.