This Baroque terrace garden was laid out in Italian–style between 1715 and 1720 for the Highest Burgrave of the Prague Castle, Jan Josef, count of Vrtba, behind his palace in the “Lesser Quarter” of Prague.
It was designed by Maximilián Kaňka, a Prague native, in collaboration with renowned artists of that time: the sculptor Matyáš Bernard Braun and the painter Václav Vavřinec Reiner. He achieved the exploit of converting a confined little plot into a grandiose and dynamic space.
The lower level is enhanced by a pond adorned with a Putto riding a sea monster, an aviary and a bucolic Sala Terrena. Its walls remind of overgrown antique ruins, where Bacchus, Venus, Adonis and Ceres celebrate the pleasures of country life. On the vault, a fictive pergola frames a beautiful scene representing the Allegories of Science and of Arts.

The garden rises up the slope in terraces laid out as trompe l’oeils to highlight their depth, with curved stairways, walls, flower beds and box tree patches. Each level is inhabited by allegorical sculptures representing the gods of Olympus. Be sure to go all the way up to the gazebo that dominates the garden, it is inspired by the realm of the sea with shells, sea deities and alluring mermaids. Your effort will be repaid by a dazzling view, when you admire at your feet the ochre sea of the Malà Strana roofs punctuated by domes, spires and towers of its main sights.

Vrtbovská zahrada – Vrtba garden
Karmelitská 25
Prague 1 – Malá Strana
www.vrtbovska.cz

How to get there: tram 12, 20, 22 stop “Malostranské Náměstí”

Opening hours:
April to October: from 10am to 6pm
Note that the garden is closed during the winter from November to March.