Thursday, September 13, 2018

Prague, Czech Republic: Petrin Tower

All right, what's the Eiffel Tower doing in Prague?

It's not the Eiffel Tower, but it sort of resembles it in design. Petrin Hill is on the west side of Prague, and most of the top of the hill consists of parks and other public areas. There's a church, garden, observatory, etc. But the prime attraction is the Petrin Tower.

It seems that a bunch of Czech tourists went to Paris in 1889, saw the Eiffel Tower, and said more or less, "We have to get one of those." The money was raised, and the tower was completed in a mere four months in 1891. They've done some work on it over the years, naturally. The top of it is the same height as the Eiffel Tower - as long as you add the height of the hill to the Prague version.

By the way, Petrin sort of translates to rocks in Latin. Some of the stone from that hill helped build portions of Prague. 

Visitors, and there are plenty of them, take the funicular up the hill, and then take a short walk to the entrance. Lots of tourists and kids groups go there, based on our experience, so you might want to get there early. We'd advise taking the elevator to the top for some unmatched views of the city. Walking down the stairs to ground level (and the gift shop/cafeteria) is relatively easy.

Care to see the view? The tower gives a particularly good look at the Castle area.



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