Stromovka, Natural monument and park in Bubeneč, Prague, Czech Republic.
Stromovka covers 95 hectares in the Vltava floodplain of Prague-Bubeneč, laid out as an English landscape garden of lawns, wooded sections and a chain of ponds fed by Rudolf's adit. A low wooden boardwalk runs along the water's edge, with reeds on the bank and deciduous trees on the far side.
The park started as a royal hunting ground in the 13th century under Ottokar II and was redesigned around 1800 in the style of an English landscape garden. This transformation shaped how it looks and how people move through it today.
The park's Czech name Stromovka, meaning 'place of trees', came into use after it opened to the public in 1804. A letter from 1624 shows that Prague residents were already brought into the reserve at Easter, a custom the forester Baltazar Sedlmayer asked to continue. The former Governor's Summerhouse, a hunting lodge built in 1495 and rebuilt in Renaissance style after 1578, stands on the southern edge.
The park is free and open around the clock, with easy access by tram stopping nearby. Comfortable shoes are a good idea since there are many paths and open areas to explore.
Rudolf's adit, dug between 1584 and 1593 under Letná, carried water from the Vltava near today's Štefánik Bridge to the middle of the reserve by Šlechta Restaurant, feeding the new Great Pond. The Czech Chamber is thought to have thanked Rudolf II by buying and giving him the mill at Přední Ovonec, today's Císařský mlýn on the park's western edge.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,147 contributors worldwide.