Powder Tower

The Powder Tower is the ideal place to start a walk through Prague’s most famous monuments: this is where the famous Royal Route begins. From the top of its 44-metre-high exterior gallery, you can admire the entire centre of the Old Town. The Tower is close to the Municipal House, Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square.

The site of today’s Powder Tower was once one of the fortified gates of Prague’s Old Town. After Charles IV founded the New Town, the fortifications were no longer needed, and the Kutná Hora Tower, which stood there at the time, was abandoned. But ruins so close to the Palace of the Kings of Bohemia, which stood on the site of today’s Municipal House between 1383 and 1484, made a rather bad impression. A new gateway was therefore built in 1475. Among its architects was the famous Matyáš Rejsek z Prostějova. However, when Vladislav IV of Bohemia moved the royal palace to Prague Castle, the motivation and funds needed to complete the gateway ran out. The tower was covered by a temporary roof and for a long time served as a gunpowder storehouse, hence its current name of Powder Tower. In 1757, during the siege of Prague by the Prussians, it was seriously damaged and remained in a poor state of repair for over a century.

The tower owes its current appearance to a neo-Gothic renovation carried out in 1886. The building was inspired by the Charles Bridge tower on the Old Town side and has retained all its original Gothic character.

You can see the Powder Tower and many other sights during the Grand Tour of Prague.