Petřín Funicular at Nebozízek
Why is it significant?
Catch your breath on the little platform halfway up the hill and wait for the rumble. A carriage slides down out of the trees above you, another one is climbing up from below, and somewhere between them they pass each other on a short stretch of double track, as politely as two neighbours on a…
Key Facts
| Place | Petřín Funicular at Nebozízek |
|---|---|
| Address | Petřínské sady, 118 00 Praha 1, Czechia |
| Geo Coordinates | 50.08170, 14.40100 |
| Part of Walk | Prague's Green Hill: Petřín Orchards, the Hunger Wall & Strahov's Painted Libraries |
| Generated | Generated |
Catch your breath on the little platform halfway up the hill and wait for the rumble. A carriage slides down out of the trees above you, another one is climbing up from below, and somewhere between them they pass each other on a short stretch of double track, as politely as two neighbours on a narrow staircase.
The Petřín funicular opened in 1891, for the great Jubilee Exhibition that showed off the industry of the Czech lands. And in those first years it ran on water. Each car carried a tank. At the top, the car about to go down was filled with water until it was heavier than the car waiting at the bottom. Gravity did the rest, the heavy car pulled the light one up on a steel rope, and at the bottom the water was simply let out. No engine, no electricity... just weight and patience.
The hill itself has never been so cooperative. Petřín is built of layers of clay and marl stone, and its slopes like to slide. The line stopped during the First World War, came back in 1932 with electric drive, and then in 1965 a landslide damaged the slope so badly that the funicular was closed for twenty years. It only reopened in 1985. So the carriages you hear are riding on ground that Prague's engineers still watch very carefully.
Now turn around and take in the view from Nebozízek. Below you lie the red roofs of Malá Strana, the green dome and tower of St Nicholas, the river, and beyond it the spires of the Old Town, layer after layer. Nobody is quite sure where the name Nebozízek comes from. In Czech a nebozez is a small hand drill, and one theory says the path up here twisted like one... but it is only a theory, and a pleasant one.
Look at the trees around the station, too. Many of them are fruit trees, and they are not here by accident. Leave the tracks now and follow the path north across the slope, into the orchards. In spring this whole hillside turns white and pink... and the next stop explains why Praguers come here on the first of May.