Prague Castle sprawls across nearly 70,000 square metres above the Vltava River, making it the largest ancient castle in the world according to Guinness World Records. Built starting in 870, it has served as the seat of Bohemian kings, Holy Roman emperors, and today houses the president of the Czech Republic. The complex draws 2.59 million visitors each year, all walking the same cobbled courtyards where a millennium of European power changed hands.
The castle's first structure was the Church of the Virgin Mary, erected in 870. Over the following centuries, rulers expanded it in waves: Ottokar II strengthened fortifications in the 13th century, Charles IV added Gothic elements in the 14th, and the massive Vladislav Hall rose in the late 15th century under King Vladislaus II. A devastating fire in 1541 destroyed large sections, prompting Renaissance additions under the Habsburgs, including Ferdinand I's Belvedere summer palace.
You enter through courtyards that shift from Baroque façades to Gothic spires, then step into St. Vitus Cathedral where light filters through stained glass onto stone floors worn smooth by centuries of footsteps. The castle grounds stretch long and narrow—570 metres end to end—so you move through distinct zones: palace halls, the medieval Golden Lane's tiny houses, terraced gardens dropping toward the city below. The scale is vast but the paths are intimate, winding between towers and chapels that each hold a different century.