From Petrin Hill we descend into Strahov Monastery. We know that we want to visit it so we start with the visitor center which is, surprisingly enough, located in an old church. We buy tickets to both attractions in the monastery, the library and the picture gallery, which is actually closed but you can still visit the building.
In the center of it all is Basilica of Assumption of Our Lady. It is an impressive building but we cannot enter it, we can see the impressive interior only from the closed entrance.
Then we enter the library section. It is unexpectedly upstairs and after showing the ticket we enter the exhibit area. It was not at all clear if you can enter the library or not and while we cannot there is a tourist group inside, not sure how they were able to do it. Still even from the entrance we have good views of the very ornate library and the countless books held inside.
A few of the books are in the small museum on display. We enjoy looking at the calligraphy and the few illustrations on the open pages before moving on.
There are a few more exhibits along the hallway, they are quite eclectic with weapons, portraits and other assorted objects.
We weren’t aware there is a second library room full of theological books, this one is more interesting as there is no one else inside so we can take photos of the room unhindered. There area also a few globes on display here which we find fascinating, to see how the knowledge about the world expanded from one to the other.
Next we move on to the Picture Gallery. While the gallery itself is closed we can still visit the former cloister and enter many of the rooms. There are no tickets sold here which makes it a problem for other tourists that didn’t buy first the tickets at the information center.
There are a few exhibits that we can still visit including one showing how the Strahov Monastery looked during its heyday. It is quite an old monastery, founded in 1143 as a Premonstratensian monastery. It was partially destroyed and rebuilt a few times during the years especially during the Hussite War.
Especially interesting is the room showing how the relics were carried by the monks through the monastery.
There are a few more beautifully restored rooms. The ceiling especially is something special with many details and beautifully painted.
We continue on finishing up the tour of the cloister and entering a few more rooms along the way. They are quite beautiful and we are happy that we paid the small additional fee to also visit this section.
Then it is time to find the exit as now it is castle visiting time. While relatively close we decide to take a tram as we have already bought the all day public transportation ticket, it is an easy two stations ride till the castle station, where we plan to start with St. Vitus Cathedral.
