Lapidarium
The original statues from the Charles Bridge and the city gates
- Area Holešovice
- Type Museum
- Time needed 1h
The Lapidarium is the National Museum's collection of Czech stone sculpture, housed in a pavilion on the Výstaviště exhibition ground in Holešovice. Its point is that these are the originals: statues taken off Charles Bridge, off the city gates and off building fronts to stop the weather finishing them, with copies left outside in their place. The holdings run from Romanesque fragments to the nineteenth century.
Open in the planner →Getting there
Trams 6, 12 and 17 to Výstaviště Holešovice, then a short walk across the ground; the pavilion is to the right of the Industrial Palace. From Staroměstské náměstí the whole journey is about twenty-five minutes. Metro C (red) to Nádraží Holešovice and a tram down also works. The ground is flat and the pavilion is at street level, but the walk from the tram stop to the door takes four or five minutes and is exposed in bad weather.
What you see
The rooms are arranged roughly by date, and the early medieval stonework at the start is the quietest part — capitals, tympana and fragments from churches that no longer stand, worth slow looking. The rooms then fill up. Gothic and Renaissance sculpture includes architectural fragments from the Prague city gates and pieces from buildings demolished in the nineteenth-century clearances. The Baroque rooms are where most people stop: original figures from Charles Bridge, at close range and at eye level, which is the only way to see what the carving actually does — the drapery, the hands, the faces that are forty feet above you and in silhouette when you walk the bridge itself. Fragments of monuments and fountains taken down from Prague's squares sit alongside them, and the damage is left visible rather than made good. Allow time at the end for the nineteenth-century material, which is less looked at.
What to pair it with
The Industrial Palace and the Výstaviště ground are immediately outside, and Marold's panorama is on the same site. Stromovka park adjoins, with Troja and the zoo beyond it.
When to go
Quiet almost always, which is part of the appeal — you can have a room to yourself in the middle of the afternoon. Opening is limited: it has long been open only on some days of the week and reduced out of season, so check before you go rather than turning up. Indoors, so weather is not a factor, and it makes a reasonable wet-afternoon pairing with a walk in Stromovka when the rain stops.
What is hard about it
The display is old-fashioned and sparse, the English labelling is limited, and the lighting in parts of the hall is dim. Nothing here is a famous object by name, and the pleasure is specialised — if you are not interested in sculpture, a room of weathered Baroque saints will not hold you for an hour. The restricted opening days catch people out more than anything else. The pavilion is unheated in feel and cold in winter.
Common questions
How long do you need at the Lapidarium?
An hour is about right for the whole run of rooms. Forty minutes is enough if you go straight for the Charles Bridge originals.
Are these really the statues from Charles Bridge?
Several of them, yes. Most of the figures on the bridge today are copies, and a number of the originals were brought here to get them out of the weather.
Is it open every day?
No. Opening days are limited and shorter out of season, so check before you go.
Nearby
- Letná ParkThe plateau above the river, with a beer garden and the metronome
- Trade Fair PalaceFunctionalist hall holding the national modern art collection
- Výstaviště Exhibition GroundsThe 1891 exhibition grounds, iron and glass, half restored
More of the same kind
- National MuseumThe neo-Renaissance pile at the top of Wenceslas Square
- Villa MüllerAdolf Loos's 1930 house, an argument about space made in concrete
- Convent of Saint AgnesThe oldest Gothic building in Prague, now medieval art
- Museum KampaCentral European modern art in a converted mill on the island