Vrtba Garden
Why is it significant?
Climb the staircases of the Vrtba Garden terrace by terrace, past stone balustrades and statues of gods, until the roofs of Malá Strana spread out beneath you. From the top, the dome of St Nicholas seems close enough to touch, and the castle floats along the ridge above it.
Key Facts
| Place | Vrtba Garden |
|---|---|
| Address | Karmelitská 25, 118 00 Praha 1, Czechia |
| Geo Coordinates | 50.08660, 14.40160 |
| Part of Walk | Prague's Secret Lesser Town: Kampa, the Devil's Stream & the Embassy Garden of 1989 |
| Generated | Generated |
Climb the staircases of the Vrtba Garden terrace by terrace, past stone balustrades and statues of gods, until the roofs of Malá Strana spread out beneath you. From the top, the dome of St Nicholas seems close enough to touch, and the castle floats along the ridge above it. And yet from the street below you would never guess any of this is here.
The garden was created around 1720 for Count Jan Josef of Vrtba, a senior official of the Bohemian kingdom, who owned the palace on Karmelitská. His architect, František Maxmilián Kaňka, had a problem: a narrow, steep strip of hillside behind the house. His answer was theatre. Instead of fighting the slope, he stacked it, terrace upon terrace, joined by staircases, so that each level reveals the next as you climb.
Look at the sculptures. Many of them came from the workshop of Matthias Bernard Braun, the great sculptor of Czech Baroque, who could make stone look as if it were caught in the wind. Down at the bottom, the sala terrena, the cool garden hall, carries paintings by Václav Vavřinec Reiner. Three of the best artists of their generation worked on a garden you could cross in a couple of minutes.
By the late twentieth century it had decayed badly, its statues crumbling, its terraces overgrown. A long restoration in the 1990s brought it back, and today it is part of the protected historic centre of Prague, on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Still, it stays strangely quiet. Many people walk past the gate on Karmelitská every day without ever noticing it.
Gardens like this one were the private luxury of Prague's nobility, built for walking, flirting, music and showing off to visitors. Linger for a moment on the top terrace... then come back down to Karmelitská and walk a few steps along the tram tracks. The next church looks modest from outside, but pilgrims cross oceans to see what it keeps behind the altar.