Visitor guide · Unofficial website: Prague Castle, Old Town Hall & Astronomical Clock, Petřín Lookout Tower, Žižkov Television Tower and Museum of Communism

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Funicular track climbing a wooded slope on Petřín hill in autumn, with a metal fence along the line, lamp posts beside the path and no car in view.

Prague · Petřín Hill · Lookout tower, Mirror Maze, funicular

Petřín Lookout Tower: tickets, hours and highlights

A steel lookout tower on Petřín hill, built in 1891 as a free copy of the Eiffel Tower at one fifth scale, with 299 steps and a Mirror Maze next door. Opening hours, the funicular and directions.

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Today

Opening hours for every month are on the Opening hours page.

    Checked against the official website on 24 October 2026 · Official source

    In short

    • The tower is open every day: from 9:00 to 19:00 from April to September, from 9:00 to 18:00 in October and from 10:00 to 18:00 from November to March. The official site publishes no last-entry time, and the visitor rules say the tower closes 30 minutes after the end of the opening hours. Climbing means 299 steps.
    • The Mirror Maze next door has its own hours, and the Štefánik Observatory is nearby.
    • The funicular from Újezd to the hill restarted on 22 September 2026 in trial operation, according to its operator DPP: 7:00 to 22:15 every 10 minutes. Check its status on the DPP site before you rely on it.
    • The tickets page lists the ticket for the tower and the Mirror Maze sold by our partner, a third party; its card says the lift is not included. It also lists two products for the Franz Kafka Museum nearby.

    The tower

    The tower was built for the Jubilee Exhibition of 1891 as a free copy of the Eiffel Tower in Paris at a scale of 1:5, and was opened on 20 August 1891. It is 58.70 m high, an octagonal steel lattice, and its top is at the same altitude above sea level as the top of the Eiffel Tower, according to the operator. You climb 299 steps to the panoramic cabin at 51 m; there is also a covered terrace at 20 m.

    Baedeker’s 1911 handbook already lists the Petřín view tower, with 300 steps and a lift (p. 307). Louis Léger, in Prague (1907, p. 54), called it “a miniature Eiffel Tower” (our translation). According to the operator, the lift was removed in 1953 to make room for television cables, and the tower reopened after a general rebuilding on 24 March 2002.

    The view

    On a clear day, the operator says, the view extends across almost the whole of Bohemia. Baedeker described the view in 1911 as a superb survey of Prague and the valley of the Moldau (p. 307).

    The funicular

    The funicular climbs from Újezd to the hill by way of Nebozízek; in the uphill direction it stops at Nebozízek, and downhill it passes without stopping. The original funicular opened in 1891 and an electric one in 1932; after landslides destroyed it in 1965, it reopened in 1985 as part of the public transport system. Baedeker (1911, p. 307) records a cable tramway that climbed in 3 minutes to the upper terminus.

    According to the operator DPP, trial operation with new cars began on 22 September 2026, after almost two years of closure. The line is 509 m long and a ride takes about 3 minutes. Some pages on the tower’s own site still say the funicular is out of service, an older notice, so check the status on the DPP site.

    The Mirror Maze

    Entrance gate of the Mirror Maze on Petřín hill: a pale yellow turreted building with green copper roofs, a wooden door and heraldic shields above the arch.

    Next to the tower, the Mirror Maze looks like a small castle. It was built for the 1891 exhibition and opened as a mirror maze on 14 May 1893, with 35 mirrors. At the end you reach a diorama of the battle of the Praguers against the Swedes on Charles Bridge in 1648, painted by the brothers Adolf and Karel Liebscher, and then the Hall of Laughter with distorting mirrors. The building is a copy of the Gothic gate at Vyšehrad known as Špička.

    The Štefánik Observatory

    The Štefánik Observatory on Petřín hill: a white building with a round dome and a green-roofed tower, set on a lawn with red roses and a few visitors.

    Near the tower, the Štefánik Observatory offers observations of the sky with large telescopes during opening hours (the Sun by day, the Moon, planets and stars after dark, in clear weather), a permanent exhibition on astronomy and a meteorite museum. It opened to the public between 1928 and 1930. Its hours change with the twilight, so check the observatory’s own site.

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