As I'm often saying, even though I've always been an outdoors person and enjoyed the natural points of interests during my trips, when it comes to city breaks or basically a journey outside my country, it makes a lot more sense to focus on the urban tourist destinations from various reasons.
One would be that it's amongst the most fun and interesting ways to learn about what that country has been through in the past, as well as face the culture of the country that makes sense to want to explore. But equally, it also represents the easiest and safest way to explore a country because it might be tricky to get in the wilderness without being accompanied by a local, to make sure you are safe from any risks.
Anyway, while I miss this activity badly and it's hard not to think of my outdoors moments, even if I am "stuck" in a city exploring it, I'm constantly looking for ways to approach nature and where my real heart is. Hence why, during my stay in Prague I ended up in quite a few places like this, remembering about the beautiful Grotta, Vyšehrad Gardens, Letná Park and The South Gardens that is quite linked to my current post.
When I wrote about The South Gardens, I mentioned that the Prague's Castle is surrounded of more gardens, The South ones being just a little part of what makes this region even more beautiful.
So while we managed to visit those while walking away from the castle, we didn't really make a plan to check out all of them because we had our list with what to visit for the rest of the day already created.
However, when walking to our next stop, we ended up passing by some imposing gates through which you could already observe the vibrant colors of nature, which caught our attention before seeing the little informative panel next to the gates, stating that we reached another garden of the Prague Castle, entitled The Royal Garden this time.
That was the moment when, even if we already had set on GPS our next destination, we thought that it would be a great loss to pass by without entering the gardens for a couple of minutes especially that we met during our walk to the next stop.
We had our trip in September, so the hot temperatures were a challenge for both us and maintaining nature look so fresh, but what I could already feel from the first steps made inside the garden, is that we are speaking of an Italian Renaissance garden.
 |  |
|---|
Click on the images to see them in full resolution
The Royal Garden, locally known as Královská Zahrada, dates since the 16th century and it was mainly designed by the Emperor Ferdinand I of Habsburg.
At first, the purpose of the gardens were to raise a vineyard for the emperor, but then it slowly turned also into a summer palace residence for Queen Anne, Ferdinand's wife.
The story of how these two met is quite interesting because they were only 12 years old when Anna's father agreed with the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I to have his daughter marry one of the emperor's sons, Charles or Ferdinand. Despite the thing that Anna was always hoping to mary Charles, when she turned 18 years old, she had to marry Ferdinand, which, in the end, it became a happy and successful marriage that didn't last for too long because after burning their 3rd child, Anna died at 43 years old.
It's not a surprise anymore that this kind of agreement used to happen a lot in the history and that in most of the cases there was no love or happiness at all, but somehow the love that was born a bit later between Anna and Ferdinand, represents one that we barely see these days anymore, even when we make our own picks in terms of who we are marrying.
 |  |
|---|
Click on the images to see them in full resolution
The summer palace for the queen was built for celebrations, balls, and a place for the informal performance of royal duties, but sadly, Anna did not live to see the day when the construction was finished, nor when the singing fountain was brought after being created by the author of the largest bell of the St. Vitus Cathedral, Tomáš Jaroš.
What makes this fountain special is not only its unique name but the thing that is very suggestive for the effect it creates because anyone staying close to this fountain can hear a little music being played with the help of the water that is pouring, and even when the fountain is dry, if you slowly slap the fountain with your open palm, it will create a sound that seems very similar to the one created by the handpan.
 |  |
|---|
Click on the images to see them in full resolution
I'm not sure whether the summer residence can be visited by tourists or not, as it was closed during our visit, but a simple walk in the gardens felt blessing enough for us to recharge our batteries before continuing our day.
Such as, the gardens became a lot more popular lately for its unique and rare botanical specimens and the exotic plants that were brought from more parts of the globe. Despite its main origins and what it was meant to serve, these days the gardens can be considered a modern park that gets close to the "English-Style" when it comes to parks.
The official address of The Royal Gardens is Hradčany, 119 08 Pražský-Prague 1, Czechia and the access if free for anyone who wants to visit them, being open daily between 10 AM to 7 PM. We reached the gardens by simply walking away from the Prague Castle that no matter the direction you will follow, you will still reach some of the gardens surrounding it. However, reaching this part of the city with public transport can happen in more ways, as there are various tram stops nearby (Královský letohrádek, Pražský hrad, Pohořelec) and also to metro stations (Malostranská, Hradčanská).
The most used route by the foreign tourists is to take tram No. 22 (stop called Pražský hard) and then leave the Prague Castle through the Old Castle Stairs to the metro station Malostranská.
Other places I've seen during my stay in Prague:
- The "John Lennon" Wall
- The Nustle Bridge also known as "The Suicide Bridge" of Prague
- Street Art in Prague
- The Dancing House
- Idiom Installation - the book tower of the Prague library
- Vyton Naplavka and Palackého Most
- Grotta, Havlíček Gardens
- Vyšehradské Sady (Vyšehrad Gardens)
- National Library of Technology
- Prague's Astronomical Clock (Pražský Orloj)
- The Narrowest Street of Prague
- The Brick Gate (Cihelná Brána)
- Letná Park (Letenské sady)
- Vyšehrad Cemetery (Famous Czechs of the Past)
- Saints Peter and Paul Basilica
- First Ladies’ Fashion Exhibition (at Prague’s National Museum)
- The South Gardens (Prague, Czech Republic)
- Accidentally Witnessing Prague’s Changing of the Guard
more coming soon...
Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game reviews, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 750+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, editing, cooking, and doing various sports activities.
~ @GabrielaTravels ~
[//]:# ([//]:# (!worldmappin 50.09326 lat 14.40197 long Great location to connect with nature and history at the same time d3scr))