Even though I am an outdoors lover and I'd pick nature and mountains pretty much in all my trips, things are quite the opposite when it comes to having a city break or exploring a foreign country, focusing more on the urban experiences since I find it a pretty cool way of getting to know a bit more about a country's culture and local food that more or less turned into a touristic experience too.
It's true that the main reason contributing on this preference came from travelling on low budget and never renting a car that would do a great job to take me and my friends closer to nature and outdoor points of interest, but as I like thinking, everything happens for a reason. And in this case, the reason it's obvious: getting to taste a new country's culture.
 |  |
|---|
 |  |
|---|
As we can never stay too much time away from nature, we often end up exploring a park, some gardens, or even a cave that do bring a little spark regarding the mood we have when being outdoors.
And, in today's case, it's about The South Gardens located near Prague Castle which look absolutely amazing and felt like the perfect break in between urban points of interest.
 |  |
|---|
I think you already figured that out, but just in case you didn't I'll mention it on my own too. The South Gardens are, as their name suggests, just a little part of the actual surface of gardens surrounding this part of the town, namely, from the South. While we didn't really get to explore all of them, I believe these are the most impressive ones because of the connection made from a very royal location to the rest of the world that can be noticed from the top, yet a view that I absolutely enjoy having during my trips.
As you can see in the first picture from the top, there was some sort of improvised fence that was meant to keep people away from stepping on the grass for the sake of getting one of the pictures I got right after.
The truth is, The South Gardens cover around 500 meters long which means that you will reach viewpoints pretty often without being needed to sacrifice the grass to satisfy your curiosity.
 |  |  |
|---|
 |  |
|---|
 |  |  |
|---|
There is no proper information about when The South Gardens were initially established, but it's known that they came out gradually on the location of bulwarks beneath Prague Castle, the last renovation taking place in 2012 which represents the original appearance they had in 1920 after the renovations made by the Slovenian architect Josip Plečnik for the first president of Czech Republic, Tomáš Masaryk.
The South Gardens are made of three smaller gardens:
- Paradise Garden: located on the spot of the oldest garden right in front of the southern wall of the Prague Castle, where it used to be a private garden in the 16th century. The emperor Rudolf II also owned a private garden in this part of the city where he had his own bath.
- Garden on the Ramparts: this part of the South Gardens was made of more smaller gardens that turned everything into a natural park in the 19th century. Still, in the same century, a fortification wall was raised around this area which can be seen also today, but which was lowered during the renovations from 1920.
- Hartig Garden: represents the smallest part of the South Gardens that comes with a Music Pavilion and it was connected with the rest of the gardens and the castle somewhere in 1960. However, this one is the single part of The South Gardens that is not open to the public.
 |  |
|---|
 |  |  |
|---|
 |  |
|---|
The official address of The South Gardens is Hradčany, 119 00 Prague 1, Czechia and they can be reached from various sides of the city as there are several tram stops nearby (Královský letohrádek, Pražský hrad, Pohořelec) or even metro (Malostranská, Hradčanská). Either way, while the gardens are pretty close to the castle which is a better landmark for you when opting for a way to reach this part of Prague, the closest point that will leave you next to the gardens is Malostranská.
There is no fee to visit the gardens but they are not open all the time. The actual visiting schedule is daily between 10 AM to 6 PM.
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)
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.
[//]:# ([//]:# (!worldmappin 50.09139 lat 14.40536 long The perfect spot to take a break from crowded places and stress free d3scr))