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Summary for: Open House Prague returns with 100 rarely accessible spaces open to the publicNow a highly popular staple of the spring season in Prague that attracts thousands of curious urban adventurers, Open House Prague is back for its 12th edition.
Running from May 18-24 with a rich accompanying program, the festival culminates on the weekend of May 23-24 with two days of free access to over 100 buildings, or specific areas of some venues, that aren’t accessible to the public the rest of the year.
Buildings at a crossroads
“This year’s Open House Prague draws attention to buildings that stand at a crossroads, where decisions on saving some have long been pending and remain undecided,” explained festival founder and director Andrea Šenkyříková.
The path forward, she insists, doesn’t involve their demolition but should lead to the “sensitive restoration and new uses that will restore both their life and their purpose.”
All buildings part of the festival can be accessed for free, and no prior registration is needed except for some events of the accompanying program. Buildings will either be open for one or two days, usually from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., but opening hours may sometimes vary. Some venues offer special tours in English.
This year, the scope of open buildings is as wide as ever: cultural institutions, ministries, town halls, schools, archives, sports venues, former factories, palaces, train stations, breweries, even hospitals and retirement homes.
Open House Prague highlights to look forward to
- Visit the former Central Office of the Czechoslovak Tobacco Organization, now turned into the Municipal Court of Prague, a beautiful neoclassical building with some Art Deco twist at the heart of Vinohrady.
- Get a sense of Baltic diplomacy at the exquisite Embassy of Lithuania or the more imposing German Embassy.
- Walk in the footsteps of Hitler, the Spartakiads and the Rolling Stones at the monumental Great Strahov Stadium.
- Tour the construction site of the Praha-Bubny railway station, from where tens of thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps during World War II.
- See where the Czech government welcomes and accommodates foreign heads of states and distinguished visitors at the Liechtenstein Palace on Kampa island.
- Take a tour of the City Mayor’s Residence where, oddly enough, only the first mayor of Prague actually lived.
- Witness how cultural institutions can rise, fall and rise again from the ashes at the Nová Spirála theater at Výstaviště.
But don’t take our word for it. Visit the full list of open buildings and plan your own discovery weekend.
Visit the Open House website for more information and the complete list of open buildings or, for an even better experience, download the mobile app that helps you plan your route.
