The first train reached Prague here in August 1845. The station that received it is still in daily use, and its classicist buildings on Havlíčkova and Hybernská are a listed cultural monument.
At a glance
Masarykovo nádraží is the oldest railway station in Prague and, according to Prague City Tourism, the only terminus station in the city. The Czech National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) describes it as the oldest steam railway station in Bohemia and an important monument of early railway engineering. It was built in 1843–1845 on land bought up along the city walls, as the end of the line from Olomouc, and it was the first major breach in the fortifications of the New Town. The name it carries today honours Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia.
Key facts
- Where: Havlíčkova 1014/2, with frontages on Hybernská and Wilsonova, Nové Město, Prague 1
- Built: 1843–1845; ceremonially opened on 20 August 1845
- Design: the NPÚ names the engineer Antonín (Anton) Jüngling as author of the project for the departure and arrival halls and buildings; Prague City Tourism credits Jan Perner with the siting (1842) and Jan Nevole with the architectural design
- Style: classicism
- Protection: cultural monument, ÚSKP no. 41343/1-2047, protected since 3 May 1958
- Listed complex: the station building and post office (conscription nos. 1014 and 2086), the carriage depot, the workshop building with its administrative wing, and the transfer table
- Current use: working railway station; part of the Hybernská frontage (Hybernská 1014/13) houses the City Inn hotel
- Coordinates: 50.087456, 14.432694 · open in Google Maps
History
The station was built as the Prague terminus of the Olomouc–Prague railway, and it soon also served the line to Dresden. The NPÚ record explains the layout that followed from this: an inner part within the walls, with the arrival and departure halls, built in 1844–1845 between Na Florenci, Havlíčkova and Hybernská streets, and an outer operating part beyond the walls, on the ground of the Krehn garden below Žižkov, where the two lines met.
Prague City Tourism gives 20 August 1845 as the day of the ceremonial opening. For a city still enclosed by Baroque fortifications, a railway entering the walls was a break with the old order of things, and the heritage record singles out exactly that: it was the first significant intrusion into the defensive system of the town.
The station changed its name more than once. After 1918 it was named after President Masaryk; during the Nazi occupation and the communist period the name was changed several times, and after 1989 Masaryk’s name returned, as Radio Prague International recounts. One room from the first years survives with particular care: the former imperial lounge in the left wing, now called the Masaryk Lounge, with a Neo-Renaissance beamed ceiling, a richly carved fireplace and a statue of Masaryk by Jan Štursa.
What you see
From Havlíčkova the station shows a long cream-coloured building of three upper storeys over a ground floor, with the corner block standing slightly forward. The windows are round-headed and framed by light surrounds, set in regular rows between horizontal cornices; the top storey has smaller arched windows under the eaves. The composition is calm and even, as classicism asked, with no tower or clock to compete for attention.
At street level an iron and glass canopy runs along the front, sheltering the entrances and the tram stop, and the trams pass directly in front of the building. The side facing Hybernská continues the same language on a quieter street, and it is there, at number 13, that part of the station complex is used as a hotel.
Practical information
- The station is open to passengers daily; Prague City Tourism gives access hours of 3:25 to 23:40.
- Trains leave from here for suburban, regional and interregional services.
- The Masaryk Lounge is a historic room within the station; it is not a museum with regular opening hours.
- The City Inn hotel occupies premises at Hybernská 13, an address registered in the national address register (RÚIAN) under the station’s conscription number 1014.
Getting there
The station lies on the eastern edge of the New Town, a short walk from Náměstí Republiky and the Municipal House. Trams stop in front of the building at the Masarykovo nádraží stop. The metro station Náměstí Republiky and the Florenc bus and metro interchange are both within walking distance.
Nearby
- Hotel Central, Prague, on the same street, Hybernská.
- Municipal House (Obecní dům), at the western end of Hybernská.
- Na Poříčí 7, the insurance palace where Kafka worked.
Sources
- Památkový katalog (NPÚ), Masarykovo nádraží, ÚSKP 41343/1-2047: dates, author, layout, extent of the listed complex, heritage value.
- Prague City Tourism, Masaryk Railway Station: opening on 20 August 1845, Perner and Nevole, the Masaryk (originally Imperial) Lounge, current services.
- Radio Prague International, Masaryčka: an 1845 Prague architectural jewel: the changes of name after 1918 and after 1989.
- ČÚZK, RÚIAN address register: Havlíčkova 1014/2 and Hybernská 1014/13 as addresses of the same building number.
- The sources disagree on the authorship of the design (Jüngling in the NPÚ record, Nevole with Jüngling in charge of a later extension in Prague City Tourism); both are reported here.
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