Seminary Garden

The Seminary Garden in Mala Strana is part of the large Petrin Gardens and is located on the eastern slope of Petrin Hill in the place of the original vineyard.

The Seminary Garden is a popular destination for walks in early spring, because it is full of almond trees which bloom as the first of the trees. The orchard, numbering 800 of these fruit trees, attracts visitors to a beautiful flowering spectacle, usually at the turn of March and April. You will have an even more intense experience if you get up very early and go here to watch the sunrise. On a very steep slope, there is an almond orchard, in which you will find a varied mixture of different varieties and types of almond trees. There are also around 2,000 pieces of other fruit trees, namely apple, pear, cherry or sour cherry and myrobalans.

The slope with almond trees is called the American slope because it is adjacent to the premises of the American embassy. The US Embassy is housed in the Schönborn Palace, built in the Baroque style. The palace also includes a widely spread terraced Schönborn Garden with an orchard and an early Baroque gloriette on which the flag of the United States of America rises.

The area of the Seminary Garden is interwoven with winding paths that hide the classicist chapel of the Infant Jesus from the 18th century, a monument of near born writer Jan Neruda, child playgrounds and the Tilia of Republic planted by the Nature Protection Corps at the National Museum Society in Prague on 28 October 1968. In the upper part of the gardens there is a small lake and the spring of the Petrinka well.

Already in the Middle Ages, the area of the Seminary Garden was covered by vineyards founded on the initiative of Emperor Charles IV. In the 17th century, the land became part of the Lesser Town monastery of the Barefoot Carmelites of the Virgin Mary the Victorious and was fenced off as theur garden. After that, the garden became the property of the archbishop’s seminary in Klementinum. The original Carmelite Garden was renamed the Seminary Garden. The restoration of the garden, authored by Svatopluk Mockner, took place between 1912 and 1914 and involved the division of the garden into blocks, the planting of land with fruit trees and the construction of roads. In 1927, the garden became the property of the capital city of Prague and subsequently the perimeter walls were demolished and symbolically on May 1, the garden was opened to the public.

From the Seminary Garden there is a beautiful view in the foreground of the important early Baroque church of Our Lady Victorious and St. Anthony of Padua with the adjacent monastery of the Barefoot Carmelites. Thanks to the famous statue, it is often called Church of Infant Jesus. On the right of the church, the majestic building of the Czech Museum of Music attracts attention. The museum is located in the rebuilt former monastery church of St. Mary Magdalene, whose roof is decorated with a distinctive octagonal lantern.

Magnificent views are complemented by other beautiful towers of the Old Town, such as the Tyn Church, the Old Town Hall and the Old Town Bridge Tower. Furthermore, the distinctive green dome of the church of St. Francis of Assisi, the Astronomical Tower of the neighboring Clementine, the narrow Old Town Water Tower, the decorated roof of the National Theater and so on. The background of the beautiful Prague view is illustrated on the horizon by the National Monument in Vitkov, the Central Telecommunication Building or the Zizkov Television Tower. The Seminary Garden in Petrin Gardens is accessible from Hellichova street or from the Nebozizek fenicular stop.