Prague Castle Picture Gallery, Art museum at Prague Castle, Czech Republic

The Prague Castle Picture Gallery occupies rooms within the Northern and Western wings of the castle complex and displays around 100 paintings from its collection. Visitors walk through historic spaces that showcase works by European masters such as Tizian, Veronese, and Rubens alongside paintings from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Emperor Rudolf II moved his residence to Prague in 1583 and gathered paintings, curiosities and natural specimens until his death in 1612. In 1585 the architect Giovanni Gargioli began converting the northern wing and building the 100-metre Long House, whose upper floor held the gallery. Swedish troops under Königsmarck looted much of the collection in 1648; in 1762 Nicolaus von Pacassi dissolved the gallery during the Theresian rebuilding.

The gallery's name refers to the picture collection founded by Emperor Rudolf II, whose court painters included Hans von Aachen and Bartholomeus Spranger. The permanent exhibition shows over a hundred Old Master paintings from a castle collection of about 4,000 works, including Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto and Rubens.

The gallery is located within the castle grounds and can be reached through the main entrances and passageways of the complex. Plan to spend time exploring the rooms at a comfortable pace, and keep in mind that access may occasionally be affected by official castle events.

The gallery's core rooms were built over the imperial stables: the architect Giovanni Gargioli began the so-called Long House in 1585, and its 100-metre corridor on the first floor held Rudolf II's Kunstkammer, with the picture gallery on the floor above. After the Theresian rebuilding these rooms ceased to serve as a gallery and are used as representational spaces.