Rajská zahrada, Renaissance garden at Prague Castle, Czech Republic.

Rajská zahrada is a 0.38-hectare garden in the southern gardens of Prague Castle, bordered by Hradčanské náměstí to the west and opening into the larger Na Valech garden to the east. Its present form was created in the 1920s by architect Jože Plečnik, who added a double portal and granite staircase from the west and placed a 150-ton granite bowl, 430 cm in diameter, on the central lawn. A 400-year-old yew with a trunk circumference of 245 cm stands at the lawn's edge.

The garden was laid out in the mid-16th century by Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol as his private garden, on the site of earlier medieval fortifications. Emperor Rudolf II later added an aviary and a bath, and the round Matthias Pavilion dates from the time of his brother Matthias. In 1920 President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk commissioned Jože Plečnik to rebuild the castle grounds, giving the garden its present form.

The name Paradise Garden comes from its use as a private garden for Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol in the mid-16th century. Today visitors can see the Matthias Pavilion, a round Renaissance structure with a wooden ceiling painted with the coats of arms of 39 lands ruled by Emperor Matthias, and wall paintings by Josef Navrátil from 1848.

Enter from Hradčanské náměstí through Plečnik's double portal in the castle wall, then descend the granite staircase into the garden. The garden is open to visitors during the summer months; it merges eastward into the larger Wall Garden. The granite bowl stands on the lawn below the stairs.

A yew tree at the edge of the lawn, with a trunk circumference of 245 cm and an estimated age of 400 years, is probably the oldest tree in the Prague Castle area. A plain door near the granite bowl leads to the Vázové schodiště, the president's private staircase to the southern gardens; the adjacent window has a gilded grille and the door bears the Bohemian lion and Slovak lightning bolts.