Hradčanská

The station is named after Hradčany - a town district, where also the Prague Castle stands (Hrad means 'castle' in Czech). Nevertheless, the Castle is quite far from the station itself.
Hradčanská is an important transport junction. There is a tram crossing used by seven tramlines, so the station is very busy with people changing from metro to tram and vice versa. These tramlines together with several bus lines are serving wide areas in the west of Prague and most of their inhabitants are using Hradčanská as their main changing point. In addition there is a railway station Dejvice near the metro station. Unfortunately the railway station building is on the opposite side of the track and thus the transfer is not very comfortable. But there are plans for the reconstruction of this railway line as a new connection to the Ruzyně airport. Part of this plans is a completely new railway station (the historical building would be preserved - it is historically worth and one of the most picturesque in Prague) and a new escalator shaft from the metro platform directly to the railway station. However, these plans are not yet fully approved, so maybe it will take a long time to realize them.



View Prague Metro on bigger map

© Matej Cadil - 31 May 2005
A view of the main street under which the station is located. On the lef you can see one of the station entrances and on the right there is a tram stop with one tram just arriving.

© Matej Cadil - 31 May 2005
The ticket hall. There's an interesting layout: The escalator shaft is in the centre of a squarish vestibule and it is enclosed by a circular glass wall with several doors.

© Matej Cadil - 31 May 2005
Again the ticket hall with the upper end of the escalators to the platform.

© Matej Cadil - 31 May 2005
An artwork on the wall of the vestibule. The "MLXXXV" are Roman numerals for 1085 - a year when the first Bohemian king Vratislav was crowned. Therefore it was the begining of the Czech kingdom (although the country already existed long before as a princedom).

© Matej Cadil - 31 May 2005
Another artwork in the vestibule. This is of course the coat-of-arms of Bohemia.

© Matej Cadil - 31 May 2005
The escalator shaft from platform to the ticket hall. Hradčanská is one of the deepest metro stations in Prague - the platform is 43 metres deep (compare Náměstí míru the deepest station with 52 metres).

© Matej Cadil - 31 May 2005
The central aisle.

© Matej Cadil - 31 May 2005
Another view of the central aisle from the opposite direction.

© Matej Cadil - 31 May 2005
The westbound platform.