Wallenstein Garden and Palace, Prague

located in the little quarter below prague castle is the wallenstein palace. this huge baroque palace was built by albercht von wallenstein between 1624 and 1630. the palace has a collection of fine art and the gardens have beautiful sculptures.

This magnificent residence was built in the 17th century for the Bohemian commander Wallenstein.

The building is also the seat of the Parliament, Ministry of Culture and houses the Comenius Museum.

Its Garden Pavillion is used for theatrical and concert performances.

Palace open: 10am – 4pm Sat&Sun

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I first saw Wallenstein's gardens when I was admiring the panorama of Prague from the balcony of Vladislav's hall in the castle proper. I didn't know what I was looking at but what called my attention was a strange, dark wall surrounding a property below the castle. I took a picture (pic 1) meaning to ask somebody knowledgeable later on. But an hour later I found myself facing the very wall, which turned out to be the famous Baroque experiment of Wallenstein's architects and builders, surrounding his gardens from one side. Rather ugly in close up.

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This is a very beautiful and free garden that has many nice features and areas like a large carp pond, fountains, an owl enclosure, free roaming peacocks and more.

There is a strange grotto on one wall in which hidden in the bumps are faces of scary looking people and animals. There's some nice bronze sculptures and a beautiful loggia, look up at its roof for some beautiful paintings.

Wallenstein Palace is the first great building built in Prague during the Baroque time and it is the monument of the general Albrecht von Wallenstein (1581-1634). To build the palace he dejected 23 houses, three gardens and the oven from bricks of the town.
The principal room has the decorated ceiling with a fresco where Wallenstein is representing in the semblances of Mars (God of the War). The building was planned by Andrea Spezza and almost all the artists employed in the decoration of the building were Italian. Today the building entertains the Czech senate.

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I was actually looking for Prague castle and wasn't too sure where I was when I unwittingly stumbled into this gem of a garden. Apparently, some of medieval Prague was destroyed to make way for the Wallenstein garden, but I would argue that it is well worth it. Rampant with sculptures and a wonderful Baroque architecture, this was one of my favorite places that I visited in Prague. The wall sculpture is very impressive, but unfortunately I was only to capture a cross-section on camera. If you go to Prague, do yourself a favor and don't miss this. As I understand, it was closed for winter until 2007, however (check on that, I could be wrong).

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Very interesting part of the Wallenstein Garden is the one called The Secret or Secluded Garden. It is dominated by artificial dripstone rock, on which frogs, snakes, lions, monsters and grotesquely formed faces could be recognized.

This secretive and mysterious area is strong contrast to other, wide open and green parts of the Wallenstein Garden.

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The Wallenstein Garden, part of Wallenstein Palace complex, is Italian style baroque garden of Albrecht of Wallenstein. It contains copies of sculptures of Adrian de Vries, carved in the 1920s after originals which were taken away by the Swedes in 1648 and can now be seen in the Royal Garden of the Drottningholm Castle. Part of garden is the Secret or Secluded Garden with the dripstone wall. There is Salla Terrena in the Wallenstein Garden with frescoes by Baccio del Bianco, and it is used for theatrical performances and concerts.