Prague Map and planner Guide Routes ENRU

Křivoklát Castle

A royal hunting castle deep in the forest west of the city

Křivoklát Castle
Photograph: Wector.sector / CC BY-SA 4.0

Křivoklát is a royal hunting castle in the woods of the Berounka valley, about 45km west of Prague. Kings came here to hunt rather than to govern, which is why it sits in forest with no town around it. The interior survives as a set of late Gothic rooms, and it can only be seen on a guided tour.

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Getting there

Trains leave from Praha hlavní nádraží or Praha-Smíchov towards Beroun; change at Beroun onto the branch line up the Berounka towards Rakovník and get off at Křivoklát. Allow around an hour and a half each way from the Old Town Square, including the metro ride down to the station and the wait for the connection. From the halt it is a walk of ten to fifteen minutes along the road and then up through the hamlet to the gate, uphill but not severe. Check the branch-line timetable before you set out: the connections are spaced out and missing one costs you a long wait on an unstaffed platform.

What you see

You go in with a guide and a group, and you follow a fixed route. The tour takes you through the lower courtyard and up into the royal palace, where the Great Hall is the thing people remember — a long vaulted room with a beamed ceiling, hung with late Gothic carved altarpieces and statues gathered from Bohemian churches. Next to it the chapel keeps its original winged altar and the royal oratory looking down into it. Below, the tour drops into the prison and the torture chamber, where the castle's long use as a crown gaol is laid out plainly, and in the Fürstenberg wing there is a library of several tens of thousands of volumes assembled by the family who held Křivoklát in the nineteenth century. The round Big Tower can be climbed for a view that is almost entirely trees.

What to pair it with

Křivoklát is a day on its own rather than something to combine with Prague sights. If you want more out of the trip, Karlštejn is on the same Beroun line and can be reached by changing back at Beroun, and the Berounka valley has marked riverside paths from the halt itself.

When to go

Spring and autumn are best: the forest is the point, and the castle sits in it. Summer weekends bring coach groups and the English-language tours fill up, so a weekday morning is calmer. Winter opening is reduced and sometimes limited to weekends, so check before you go. Light on the castle is best in the late afternoon, which is awkward if you want the last train back.

What is hard about it

The inside is tour-only — there is no wandering through on your own, and if no English tour is running you either join a Czech one with a printed text or see nothing. Tours have fixed departure slots and a capacity, and in high season you may wait for the next one. The journey involves a change of train and a branch line with few services, which makes the whole thing a five to six hour commitment for about two and a half hours on site. People who come expecting furnished state rooms are sometimes disappointed: much of what you see is bare stone and collected church art rather than a lived-in interior.

Common questions

How long do you need at Křivoklát?

The guided circuit runs well over an hour, and with the walk up, the courtyard and the tower you should set aside about two and a half hours on site. The travel is the larger part of the day.

Can you visit without a guided tour?

No. The courtyards and the grounds are open to walk in, but every interior room is seen only on a guided circuit, so check the tour times before you travel.

Is it worth doing instead of Karlštejn?

Křivoklát is quieter, more genuinely medieval inside and much less crowded; Karlštejn is easier to reach and more dramatic from outside. If you have only one castle day and no car, Karlštejn is the simpler choice.

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