Tourists will not be allowed to access the Old Town Hall Tower starting in May

Prague - Tourists will not be allowed to go up the Old Town Hall Tower from May to November this year, as it will be under renovation. The spokesperson for the Prague City Tourism information service, Barbora Hrubá, announced this today. Last year, the tower was visited by over 860,000 tourists. The astronomical clock, which, along with the Castle, is one of the most sought-after Prague monuments, will avoid scaffolding this year, as its renovation is scheduled for next year. During the renovation, it will be replaced by projections.

Most of the heritage sites managed by the state will open to visitors around Easter this year. The Prague Castle will open its sites on April 1, which includes the gardens around the Castle. The main season at the Castle will begin on May 13, the day that marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Empress Maria Theresa. On this day, all the most important visitor sites at the Castle will be accessible for free, and a program related to the only woman on the Czech throne will be prepared. In the fall, the Administration of Prague Castle will open a permanent exhibition about Maria Theresa in the Rosenberg Palace.

Among the gardens on the southern slope below Prague Castle are the Ledebour Garden, the Small Pálffy Garden, the Kolowrat Garden, and the Small Furstenberg Garden. They bear traces of Gothic fortifications, kitchen gardens of Renaissance noble palaces, and representative Baroque flower parterres. They will be open just like the Deer Moat from April 1.

In April, the renovated New Milling Water Tower will also be opened to tourists. There will be an exhibition about firefighters and fires. The renovation of the thirty-five-meter tower, which is a historical cultural monument, cost nearly 50 million crowns. Most of the funding came from European funds, with the rest coming from the Prague city hall.

Prague City Tourism has prepared a brochure titled Prague Cafés for tourists this year, and another on the topic of Prague and design will be released in early summer. A second volume of the booklet Five Prague Walks will also be published. "The idea of the Five Prague Walks is to show visitors interesting places outside of the very center. This time, the second volume will focus on architecture," added Hrubá.

Last year, around 7.1 million tourists stayed in Prague. Of them, 85 percent were from abroad, nearly a million from Asia. Another estimated million people in Prague used shared accommodation services outside of hotels or hostels.