Průhonice Park
A landscape park of 250 hectares around a neo-Renaissance chateau
- Area Průhonice
- Type Park
- Time needed 2h 30m
Průhonice is a landscape park of some 250 hectares on the south-eastern edge of Prague, laid out from 1885 by Count Arnošt Emanuel Silva-Tarouca around a neo-Renaissance chateau. It is planted as a composition of views across valleys and water rather than as a garden of beds, and it is now run by the Botanical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The park is on the UNESCO list; the chateau itself is working offices and not generally open.
Open in the planner →Getting there
Take metro line C (red) south to Opatov, then a regional bus towards Průhonice — the 363 is the usual one — and get off at the village. The whole trip is around forty minutes from the Old Town Square. The bus stop is a few minutes' walk from the chateau courtyard, where the entrance and ticket office are. Inside, the paths run steeply down to the Botič stream and back up the far side, so the walking is hillier than the word park suggests.
What you see
You enter through the chateau courtyard, with its sgraffito walls and the chapel, and then the park opens out below you. The main route drops to the valley floor and the chain of ponds, crosses, and climbs the opposite slope to a series of deliberately framed views back at the chateau — the composition was designed around these sightlines and they still work. The Alpine garden, a rockwork terrace of mountain plants, sits above the water. There are large stands of rhododendrons and azaleas, planted in hundreds of varieties, which flower through May and into early June and are the single reason many Czechs come. Elsewhere there are mature conifer collections, specimen oaks and beeches, open meadows, and a gloriette on high ground. The separate dendrological garden nearby is a different site with its own entrance and hours.
What to pair it with
Nothing in central Prague is close. The park works best as a half day paired with something at the southern end of the metro, or simply as the whole of a quiet afternoon. If you want more planting, the dendrological garden is a short walk away.
When to go
May is the month, for the rhododendrons and the fresh leaf. October gives the best colour across the valley views. Weekend afternoons in late spring are genuinely crowded by Prague standards, so a weekday morning is better. The park opens year round but winter hours are shorter and the planting has little to show, so check before you go. Early light down in the valley stays damp and cold well into the morning.
What is hard about it
There is an entry charge, and in high season the car park and the ticket window both back up. The paths are long, unshaded in places and involve repeated climbing in and out of the valley; the full circuit is several kilometres and wheeled access is limited to a part of it. Surfaces turn to mud after rain. The chateau is an institute building, not a visitor attraction, so you see the courtyard and no interiors — people who come expecting a furnished house are disappointed. Outside the flowering weeks of May the park is handsome but undramatic.
Common questions
How long do you need at Průhonice Park?
Two to two and a half hours for the main circuit at an unhurried pace. You could spend half a day if you add the Alpine garden and the outer paths.
Can you go inside the chateau?
No. It houses the Botanical Institute, and visitors see the courtyard, the chapel exterior and the park rather than the interiors.
Is it suitable for a pushchair or a wheelchair?
Only partly. The upper paths near the chateau are manageable, but the main route drops into the valley on steep and sometimes unpaved tracks.
More of the same kind
- PetřínThe wooded hill above Malá Strana, with orchards and a funicular
- Kampa IslandAn island under the Charles Bridge, with a mill wheel and a park
- Letná ParkThe plateau above the river, with a beer garden and the metronome
- Prague ZooOne of the best zoos in Europe, built into a hillside