Prague's Royal Route: a self-guided walk from the Powder Tower to the Castle, with what is open each day

One of 2 self-guided walks in Prague. See every walk.

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: Start at the Powder Tower on Republic Square and finish at St Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle: 3.1 km, about 45 minutes of walking, and a full day with the towers, the clock and a Castle circuit. The Castle closes its buildings at 17:00 until 31 October and at 16:00 from 1 November, so be at the Castle gate by 14:00 if you want the cathedral and the Main circuit. Tuesday to Thursday are the easiest days: the House at the Black Madonna is shut on Mondays, St Nicholas closes at 17:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, and the cathedral opens at 12:00 on Sundays. Book only the Clementinum ahead; its e-tickets go on sale every Monday for the following two weeks. Or book a tour: a 3-hour guided walk from Old Town Square to the Castlead (from £23, tram ticket included, no admissions) follows the same road, and a Castle tour from Charles Bridgead (from £42) includes the entry tickets.

The route

Map of the walk numbered stops in walking order

Open the whole route in Google Maps - all the stops in walking order, set to walking directions, which is the version to put on your phone.

The coronation processions of Bohemian kings went into the Old Town by the Powder Tower and climbed to the Castle by this road. Prices are the adult rate in Czech koruna (CZK) from each operator, at about 28.8 CZK to the pound.

Walk it with a guide

A guide adds the stories and the order, and one of these tours includes the Castle tickets. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

• Prague: 3-Hour Walking Tour of Old Town & Prague Castlead, by Get Prague Guide: from £23, 4.8 stars from 7,090 reviews, 3 hours. It meets at Maiselova 5, a four-minute walk from the Astronomical Clock, crosses Charles Bridge, takes a tram up to Hradčany and finishes at the Castle. The ticket covers the guide and one tram ticket, and the tour keeps to the exteriors.
• Prague Castle 2.5-Hour Tour Including Admission Ticketad: from £42, 4.7 stars from 9,706 reviews, 2.5 hours. It starts on Charles Bridge, crosses to Lesser Town Square, takes a tram to the Castle and goes inside St Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St George’s Basilica and Golden Lane, with the tickets and the tram included.
• Prague: Castle Tour with Local Guide and Entry Ticketad: from £44, 4.7 stars from 11,898 reviews, 2.5 hours. It meets in front of Malostranská metro station, takes the tram up and covers the same four buildings, with headphones.

Prague Castle tickets compares the Castle tours with the ticket alone.

1. The Powder Tower

200 CZK (about £6.95), half price in the first hour after opening · daily 10:00 to 18:00 in October and November · 186 steps to the gallery

The Powder Tower beside the Municipal House on Republic Square. Photo: Ank Kumar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The foundation stone of the gate was laid in 1475 and the building stood unfinished from 1488, probably because the king’s residence had moved back to the Castle. The tower you see was completed in 1875 to 1886 in a neo-Gothic style by the architect Josef Mocker. It is 65 m high, with the viewing gallery at 44 m up a spiral staircase of 186 stone steps. The name dates from the 18th century, and Prague City Tourism notes that no source confirms that it ever stored gunpowder. The Royal Route begins here.

• Tickets are sold by Prague City Tourism, at the tower and online. Under-15s go in only with an adult, and a combined ticket with the New Mill Water Tower is 260 CZK.
• Hours change by season: 10:00 to 18:00 in October and November, 10:00 to 19:30 in December, 10:00 to 18:00 from January to March.

2. Celetná Street

Free · the House at the Black Madonna, Ovocný trh 19: 150 CZK, Tuesday 10:00 to 20:00, Wednesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, closed on Mondays

The House at the Black Madonna, on the corner of Celetná and Ovocný trh. Photo: Paul Korecky, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Celetná runs straight from the Powder Tower towards Old Town Square. Its landmark is the House at the Black Madonna, built in 1911 to 1912 as a department store, the first Cubist building. Josef Gočár designed it at 31 for the wholesaler František Josef Herbst, and a 17th-century statue of the Black Madonna from the earlier house on the site stands on the corner, which gave it the name.

• The Czech Cubism exhibition fills the second and third floors of the house: 150 CZK full, 80 CZK reduced, from the Museum of Decorative Arts, which runs it.
• Grand Café Orient is on the first floor, with Gočár’s Cubist bar and lights: see where to eat.

3. Old Town Square and the Astronomical Clock

Square and clock free · Old Town Hall tower 350 CZK (about £12.15), plus 100 CZK for the lift · daily 9:00 to 20:00 from April to December

Old Town Hall tower and St Nicholas Church on Old Town Square. Photo: Tony Hisgett, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The Old Town Hall was founded in 1338 as the seat of the Old Town’s administration, and the Gothic tower with its bay chapel is the oldest part. The astronomical clock on the tower’s south side was made in 1410 by Mikuláš of Kadaň. Every hour on the hour, until 23:00, the twelve apostles appear in the two windows above the dial, with the skeleton ringing the bell and the cockerel crowing at the end. The hall’s eastern wing was destroyed in the Prague Uprising on 8 May 1945 and was never rebuilt. Twenty-seven crosses in the paving in front of the town hall mark the place where 27 leaders of the Bohemian revolt were executed on 21 June 1621.

• The tower: 350 CZK at the ticket office on the ground floor, half price in the first hour after opening, and 450 CZK online without the queue (the online ticket covers the tower only). Take the lift for 100 CZK or climb.
• The interiors tour takes in the chapel, the state rooms and the underground: 150 CZK for circuit A or 100 CZK for circuit B on top of entry, paid on the day only.
• More on the clock: Astronomical Clock tickets compares the tickets and the tours.

4. Karlova Street

Free · Clementinum tour 380 CZK (about £13.20), daily 9:00 to 20:00, e-tickets only

The House at the Golden Snake on Karlova, at the corner of Liliová. Photo: Michal Kmínek, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Karlova is the narrow lane that carries the route from Old Town Square to the bridge. On Karlova the Church of St Salvator, once the main Jesuit church in Bohemia, belongs to the Clementinum, the former Jesuit college. The Italian Chapel of the Assumption, built in 1590 to 1597, has its entrance on Karlova, a portal of broken columns.

• The Clementinum tour takes about 45 minutes. It goes through the Baroque Library, which you may look into but not enter, the Meridian Hall with its astronomical instruments and up the Astronomical Tower to the gallery.
• Tickets are e-tickets only. New ones go on sale every Monday for the following two weeks, tours are limited in capacity and Prague City Tourism does not guarantee tickets at the box office. The first two tours each morning, 9:00 in English and 9:30 in Czech, are half price.
• Entrances to the Clementinum are at Karlova 1, on Křižovnická Street and at Mariánské náměstí 5, which is the nearest.

5. The Old Town Bridge Tower

250 CZK (about £8.70), half price in the first hour after opening · daily 10:00 to 18:00 in October and November · 138 steps

The Old Town Bridge Tower at night. Photo: Ank Kumar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Charles IV had the tower built with the bridge, to designs by Peter Parler, in the middle of the 14th century. It was planned as a victory arch as well as a gate, and the coronation processions of the Czech kings passed through it. The gallery is 138 steps up.

• The Lesser Town Bridge Towers at the far end of the bridge are 200 CZK, and a combined ticket for both bridge towers is 340 CZK.
• The Charles Bridge towers guide has the full prices: Charles Bridge towers.

6. Charles Bridge

Free · Lesser Town Bridge Towers 200 CZK, daily 10:00 to 18:00 in October and November

Charles Bridge, the Lesser Town and Prague Castle from the Vltava. Photo: Peter K Burian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Charles IV laid the foundation stone on 9 July 1357, and the bridge was finished in 1402. It replaced the Judith Bridge, which floods destroyed in 1342. It is built of sandstone blocks, 515.76 m long and 9.5 m wide, on 16 arches. Thirty statues of saints were added from 1683 to 1928: the oldest, by Jan Brokoff, is St John of Nepomuk, whose five-starred halo became the pattern for later statues of him. The bridge is called after Charles only since about 1870.

• The two towers at the far end are a Romanesque tower of the 12th century, rebuilt in the Renaissance in 1591, and a taller Late Gothic tower of 1464 modelled on the Old Town Bridge Tower. The gate between them dates from the early 15th century.
• Where to look: the Castle appears over the Lesser Town roofs from the middle of the bridge.

7. Lesser Town Square and St Nicholas Church

Church 150 CZK (about £5.20) · October: Sunday to Thursday 9:00 to 18:00, Friday and Saturday 9:00 to 17:00 · November: daily 9:00 to 17:00

The facade of St Nicholas Church on Lesser Town Square. Photo: VitVit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The route passes through the Lesser Town Bridge Towers, along Mostecká Street and into Lesser Town Square, where the Baroque church dominates. It took about a hundred years to build, by Kryštof Dientzenhofer, his son Kilián Ignác and his son-in-law Anselmo Lurago. The dome is 20 m across and the nave rises almost 57 m to the lantern, the tallest interior in Prague. The church’s own account calls it one of the most valuable Baroque buildings north of the Alps. Mozart played the main organ, which has more than 4,000 pipes.

• Tickets are sold only at the box office in the church, for cash in CZK or by card. The church does not accept tourist cards such as the Prague Visitor Pass, and tickets are non-refundable.
• The bell tower belongs to the city, not the church, and its 65 m gallery is 215 steps up: 200 CZK, 10:00 to 18:00 in October and November. It was closed from 14 September 2026 for reconstruction and a new exhibition, and Prague City Tourism expects it to reopen on 6 October 2026. From the 1960s to the 1980s the State Security Service used it as an observation post on the western embassies around the square.

8. Nerudova Street

Free

Nerudova Street, climbing towards the Castle. Photo: Wolfgang Sauber, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Nerudova leaves the upper side of Lesser Town Square and climbs to the Castle. It is named after the writer Jan Neruda, who lived in the House at the Two Suns. Until Maria Theresa had the houses numbered in 1770, townspeople told them apart by painted or carved signs, and many on this street have kept theirs: the Three Violins, the Two Suns, the Red Lion, the Green Crayfish, the White Radish, the Golden Horseshoe, the Golden Goblet and the White Swan. Near the top the street becomes Ke Hradu and meets Hradčany Square.

9. Hradčany Square

Free · Castle grounds daily 6:00 to 22:00 · changing of the guard at 12:00 in the First Courtyard

Hradčany Square and the Castle gate. Photo: VitVit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The square in front of the Castle’s main gate has the First Courtyard behind it. The Castle’s ceremonial changing of the guard is at 12:00 noon in the First Courtyard, and the Castle can cancel it for operational reasons.

• The grounds are open daily from 6:00 to 22:00, and only the buildings need a ticket.
• The Main circuit is 450 CZK, valid for two days, with each building entered once: the Old Royal Palace, St George’s Basilica, Golden Lane and St Vitus Cathedral. Tickets are sold at the information centres in the Second and Third Courtyards, and online through GetYourGuide, which the Castle names as its online seller. The Old Royal Palace has been fully open since 2 October 2026.
• The Salm Palace on the square houses Kuchyň, a Czech restaurant: see where to eat.

10. St Vitus Cathedral

Main circuit 450 CZK (about £15.60) · October: Monday to Saturday 9:00 to 17:00, Sunday 12:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:40 · from 1 November to 16:00, last entry 15:40

St Vitus Cathedral from the Third Courtyard of Prague Castle. Photo: Mattsjc, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

King John of Luxembourg laid the foundation stone of the third church on this site on 21 November 1344, in the presence of his son Charles. The cathedral was not finished until 1929: it took 585 years, and was consecrated on 28 September 1929 in the presence of President Masaryk. Tours are not possible during services and cultural events.

• The Great South Tower is a separate ticket, 200 CZK, 10:00 to 18:00 to 31 October with the last entry at 17:30, and 10:00 to 17:00 from 1 November with the last entry at 16:30.
• The Castle’s courtyards stay open until 22:00 after the buildings close.
• The rest of the Castle: Prague Castle tickets has the circuits, the audio guide and the order to go round.

Where to eat

Grand Café Orient

Ovocný trh 19, first floor · Monday to Friday 9:00 to 22:00, Saturday and Sunday 10:00 to 22:00

The Cubist café on the first floor of the House at the Black Madonna, with Gočár’s bar and lights. It serves coffee, brunch and cakes, among them a Cubist cream puff. Stop here at the start, between the Powder Tower and the square.

Kuchyň

Hradčanské náměstí 1, Salm Palace · daily 11:30 to 23:00 · book a table

Czech cooking on Hradčany Square, with terraces looking over the city. The menu has a pork-leg schnitzel at 535 CZK. It is the sit-down lunch at the end of the climb, before the Castle buildings. See where to eat in Prague for more.

The best day to go

The timing that works, Tuesday to Thursday: be at the Powder Tower for 10:00, when the towers open and the first hour is half price, and go straight to the Black Madonna. Be on Old Town Square before an hour strikes, walk Karlova and the bridge, reach St Nicholas by 13:00 and have lunch on Hradčany Square. Take the Main circuit from 14:00, with the cathedral before 16:40.

What closes:

• 6 October 2026: St Nicholas Bell Tower is due to reopen.
• 31 October 2026: the Castle’s summer season ends. From 1 November the historical buildings and St Vitus Cathedral close at 16:00, and the Great South Tower closes at 17:00.
• November: St Nicholas Church is open daily 9:00 to 17:00, and the Clementinum, the Old Town Hall and the towers keep their October hours.

What does not close: the streets, Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, Lesser Town Square, Nerudova and the Castle’s courtyards, which are open from 6:00 to 22:00 every day. A Monday still makes a good walk: every tower, the church, the Clementinum and the Castle are open, and only the Cubist museum is shut.

Getting there and back

• To the start: the Powder Tower stands on Republic Square, beside the Náměstí Republiky stop on metro line B. See Prague airport to the city centre.
• From the end: tram 22 stops at Pražský hrad, five minutes from the Second Courtyard, and at Malostranské náměstí. Metro line A is at Malostranská and Hradčanská. Prague public transport has the tickets.
• In reverse: the route also works from the Castle, as in Prague in one day, which starts there at 9:00 when the buildings open.

What to do with the rest of the day

• Josefov, the Jewish Quarter, is a few minutes from Old Town Square, and the Jewish Quarter walk starts there. The two routes meet at the Old Town Square and the Clementinum.
• The river: Vltava river cruises leave from the piers beside the bridge.
• An evening concert: classical concerts in Prague.
• Petřín: the Petřín Tower and funicular are on the hill above Lesser Town.
• The whole trip: 3 days in Prague builds the days round the bookings, and what to book before you go to Prague has the rest of the tickets. To sleep on the route, hotels near Old Town Square lists the hotels beside it.

Common questions

What is the Royal Route in Prague?

The road the coronation processions of Bohemian kings took to Prague Castle: from the Powder Tower along Celetná Street, across Old Town Square, down Karlova Street, over Charles Bridge, through Lesser Town Square and up Nerudova Street and Hradčany Square to St Vitus Cathedral. Prague City Tourism calls the Powder Tower the starting point of the Royal Route.

How long is the Royal Route walk?

3.1 km from the Powder Tower to St Vitus Cathedral, measured along the streets: about 45 minutes of walking, with the climb up Nerudova in the last stretch. With the towers, the clock and a Castle circuit it fills a day.

Is the Royal Route walk free?

The streets, Old Town Square, Charles Bridge and the Castle's courtyards cost nothing. The Powder Tower is 200 CZK, the Old Town Hall tower 350 CZK plus 100 CZK for the lift, the Old Town Bridge Tower 250 CZK, St Nicholas Church 150 CZK, the House at the Black Madonna 150 CZK and the Clementinum tour 380 CZK. The Castle's Main circuit, which includes St Vitus Cathedral, is 450 CZK.

What do I need to book for the Royal Route?

The Clementinum, if you want it: its tours are e-tickets only and new tickets are released every Monday for the following two weeks. The Castle's Main circuit needs no time slot and is sold at the information centres in the Castle and online through GetYourGuide. Everything else is sold at the door.

Which day is best for the Royal Route walk?

Tuesday to Thursday. On Mondays the House at the Black Madonna is closed, on Fridays and Saturdays St Nicholas Church closes at 17:00 instead of 18:00, and on Sundays St Vitus Cathedral opens at 12:00.

When do the Castle's hours change for winter?

On 1 November. The historical buildings and St Vitus Cathedral then close at 16:00 instead of 17:00, with the last entry to the cathedral at 15:40, and the Great South Tower closes at 17:00 instead of 18:00.