You can enter the Botanical Garden through the new barrier-free entrance

Prague – From this week, visitors to the Botanical Garden of the capital city have access to a new barrier-free entrance on the southern side of the garden below the St. Klara vineyard. Another new entrance near the Fata Morgana greenhouse on the western side of the premises is expected to open on January 31, 2021. The construction experienced about a six-month delay due to the spring wave of the new coronavirus pandemic, which hindered the delivery of materials from abroad. The director of the botanical garden, Bohumil Černý, said this to journalists today.

"The entrance below the vineyard is intended for all visitors. Because it is barrier-free, it can also be used by people with disabilities or mothers with strollers. The entrance also perfectly fits into the heritage-protected St. Klara vineyard, as it is sensitively set below the level of the terrain," said the director of the botanical garden. He added that barrier-free access is a long-term goal of the botanical garden. Up to 10,000 people with disabilities visit the premises annually. The building of the new entrance includes ticket offices and sanitary facilities, including barrier-free toilets.

The author of the design on which the southern entrance was built is architect and professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague, Ladislav Lábus. The construction cost about 16 million crowns, as previously stated by Deputy Mayor Petr Hlubuček (STAN).

Currently, another entrance is being built from the western part of the garden located under the Fata Morgana greenhouse, which is expected to open at the beginning of next year. According to Hlubuček, it will include a restaurant with an outdoor terrace. In this case, construction work has also been delayed. According to the original plans, the entrance was to be available this autumn.

After completion, the planned entrance on the northern side by the street K Pazderkám is expected to become the main entrance. According to Černý, construction permission is currently awaited. The entrance according to architect Zdeněk Fránek's design could begin to be built within three years. According to the director of the botanical garden, however, it will depend on how much money is raised for the construction. The northern entrance, which will include a café, restaurant, lecture hall, and subtropical greenhouse, is estimated to cost around 300 million crowns according to previous estimates.


The botanical garden is preparing regular events for its visitors this season, such as a bonsai exhibition or Pumpkin Festival. New exhibitions are also in the plans. A new canyon with a river and waterfall will be built in the northern part of the garden in the current natural erosion gully adjoining the American Prairie exhibition. The forest vegetation will also be enriched by a section dedicated to Japanese mist forests.

The garden was established in 1969. For over twenty years, the public could visit it only on open house days. It has been accessible year-round since August 1992 and is a contribution organization of the capital city. In the 1990s, it took over the St. Klara vineyard. The tropical greenhouse Fata Morgana was opened 15 years ago. Visitors to the botanical garden can see 15,000 species of trees and flowers.