Prague Castle Circuit B Extended Tour Tickets
Add the Picture Gallery, Powder Tower, and Rosenberg Palace to your visit with our all-in concierge service.
Check availabilityCircuit B expands your exploration beyond the four cornerstone sites of Circuit A. You gain entry to the Picture Gallery of Prague Castle, which holds paintings from Rudolph II's collection—works by Titian, Rubens, and Veronese that survived the Swedish looting of 1648. You climb the Powder Tower, a Gothic fortification on the northern wall that once stored gunpowder and now offers views across the castle courtyards. You enter the Rosenberg Palace, a Renaissance building with exhibition spaces dedicated to Czech history. The circuit still includes St. Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica, and Golden Lane. Our concierge tier delivers digital tickets instantly by email, confirmed within 2 hours during business hours.
What Circuit B Adds to Your Visit
The Picture Gallery occupies rooms in the castle's northern wing, near the Spanish Hall. Rudolph II assembled one of Europe's great art collections in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, commissioning works and acquiring masterpieces from across the continent. Swedish forces looted much of the collection in 1648, but significant paintings remained or were later recovered. You see works by Italian, Flemish, and German masters, displayed in galleries renovated under President Václav Havel's post-communist improvements. The collection includes portraits, religious scenes, and mythological subjects.
The Powder Tower stands on the castle's northern fortifications, built in the 15th century during Vladislaus II's reign. The tower served as a gunpowder store and, later, as a workshop for alchemists and bell founders under Rudolph II. You climb the spiral staircase to the upper levels, where exhibitions detail the tower's history and the castle's defensive architecture. The Rosenberg Palace, named for the noble family that once held estates across Bohemia, now houses exhibitions on Czech statehood and the castle's role as the seat of power. The palace rooms trace the castle's evolution from medieval fortress to presidential residence.
Rudolph II and the Castle's Golden Age
Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1576 to 1612, made Prague Castle the center of his court and his obsessions. He commissioned the northern wing and the Spanish Hall, a vast ceremonial space where his art and scientific collections were displayed. Rudolph invited astronomers, alchemists, artists, and scholars to Prague; Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler worked under his patronage. The emperor collected paintings, sculptures, clocks, scientific instruments, and curiosities from around the world. His Picture Gallery held works by Leonardo, Dürer, Bruegel, and dozens of other masters.
Rudolph's reign ended in turmoil. His brother Matthias forced him to abdicate in 1611, and Rudolph died the following year. The Thirty Years' War began in 1618 with the Third Defenestration, when Protestant nobles threw Catholic officials from a window in the Old Royal Palace. Swedish forces besieged Prague in 1648 and looted the castle, carrying off much of Rudolph's collection to Stockholm. The paintings that remain in the Picture Gallery represent a fraction of what once filled the Spanish Hall, but they still form one of Central Europe's important collections of Old Master works. Circuit B gives you access to this legacy, along with the defensive towers and Renaissance palace rooms that tell the broader story of the castle's millennium.
Planning Your Extended Visit
Circuit B requires more time than Circuit A; most visitors spend three to four hours completing all seven sites. The Picture Gallery and Rosenberg Palace are less crowded than St. Vitus Cathedral, so you can visit those first if you arrive mid-morning. The Powder Tower involves climbing a narrow spiral staircase; the views from the top extend across the castle complex and the city below. Photography is permitted in most areas, though specific rooms in the Picture Gallery may restrict it.
The castle's security screening applies to all circuits; large bags are not permitted. Timed entry applies to St. Vitus Cathedral, but the other buildings allow flexible movement once you are inside. The castle sits approximately 570 metres in length and averages 130 metres in width, occupying nearly 70,000 square metres on the hill above the Vltava River. Our concierge price includes all operator fees and service; you receive digital tickets instantly by email, confirmed within 2 hours during business hours. All sales are final. The one exception: in the rare event we are unable to secure your tickets from the operator, a full refund is issued within 24 hours.