Old Royal Palace

Stand still for a moment and look up. Above you, ribs of pale stone rise from the walls, curve, cross, and loop back on themselves like vines climbing a trellis. The floor underfoot is worn smooth by centuries of shoes. Light falls through tall windows and settles across the long, open hall. The sound changes here too. Voices soften and spread out, because there is so much air above you. This is Vladislav Hall, the heart of the Old Royal Palace at Prague Castle.

The palace you are standing in is not one building. It is a stack of buildings, layered over many centuries. Deep below your feet are the remains of a Romanesque palace from the twelfth century. Romanesque is the heavy, round-arched style of early medieval Europe. Above that come Gothic halls from the age of Charles the Fourth and his son Wenceslas. And on top of everything sits this hall. Each generation of kings built over the last one instead of tearing it down.

The hall takes its name from King Vladislav the Second, of the Jagiellonian dynasty, who ruled Bohemia in the late fifteenth century. He wanted a space large enough to show his power. His architect was Benedikt Ried, one of the most inventive builders of his time in Central Europe. The work was finished around the year 1500. For a long period this was one of the largest vaulted halls without inner supports anywhere in Europe.

Now look again at the ceiling. Those ribs do not carry the weight in the way older Gothic ribs did. Ried used them partly as decoration. They twist and intertwine, and some of them seem to stop in mid-air. Craftsmen of the time loved this kind of play with stone. It looks almost soft, like rope or plant stems. Try to follow one rib with your eyes from the wall to the centre... it is harder than it sounds.

Here is a detail many visitors miss. The windows below that late Gothic vault are already in the Renaissance style. They are rectangular, framed with classical forms that came from Italy. So in a single glance you see two ages meeting. The Gothic ceiling looks back to the Middle Ages. The windows look forward to a new way of building. This hall is one of the earliest places north of the Alps where Renaissance forms appear.

So what happened in a room this size? Almost everything. Coronation banquets were held here. Nobles gathered for great assemblies. On some days merchants set up stalls and the hall became an indoor market, selling luxury goods, books, and fine cloth. And there were knightly tournaments. Imagine the noise of horses and armour bouncing off these walls, under that delicate stone ceiling.

Those horses had to get in somehow. Look for the Riders' Staircase on the north side of the hall. Its steps are low and wide, with a gentle slope. It was designed so that knights could ride their horses up into the hall without dismounting. Above the staircase there is another fine vault of twisting ribs. It is easy to walk past, so take a moment there.

The hall still matters in public life today. Czech presidents have taken their oath of office in this space, and in earlier decades presidents were elected here by parliament. So the same room that held medieval feasts also holds modern state ceremonies. When you look down the length of the hall, picture rows of officials in dark suits where knights once stood.

From the hall, a doorway leads into the Ludwig Wing, built in the same period. Its upper rooms once held the offices of the Bohemian Chancellery. And in 1618, one of these rooms became the scene of a famous event. A group of Protestant nobles, angry at the Catholic Habsburg rulers, seized two royal governors and their secretary. They threw all three men out of a window.

The drop was long, yet all three men survived. Why they survived became a story of its own. Catholic writers said angels or the Virgin Mary had caught them. Protestant tellers said they landed in a pile of rubbish and dung. Both versions are legend, not record. What is certain is the result. This act, known as the Defenestration of Prague, helped start the Thirty Years' War, one of the most destructive wars in European history.

Another room worth your time is the old Diet Hall. The Bohemian Diet, the assembly of the estates, met here, along with the highest court of the land. A great fire swept through the castle and the Lesser Town in 1541, and this hall was rebuilt afterwards. Look at the arrangement of the room. The royal throne stands at one end, with seats for the clergy and nobles placed around it. The layout itself shows who held power.

Upstairs are the rooms of the New Land Rolls. The land rolls were the official records of property and legal decisions in the kingdom. Their keepers marked the walls and ceilings with painted coats of arms. The result is a quiet, colourful room, covered in shields, animals, and family symbols. It feels very different from the open grey stone of the great hall below.

Before you leave, walk back into Vladislav Hall and find the doorway at its far end that looks into All Saints' Church, the royal chapel joined to the palace. Then step close to a south window if you can. Below you lie the red roofs of the Lesser Town and the river beyond. Kings looked out at this same view. Listen once more to the soft, spreading sound of the hall, and look up one last time at those looping ribs of stone.