5 Best Sights in Prague, Czech Republic

With its high-walled gardens and vaulted Renaissance sala terrena (room opening onto a garden), this palace displays superbly elegant grounds. Walking around the formal paths, you come across numerous fountains and statues depicting figures from classical mythology or warriors dispatching a variety of beasts. However, nothing beats the trippy "Grotto," a huge dripstone wall packed with imaginative rock formations, like little faces and animals hidden in the charcoal-color landscape, and what's billed as "illusory hints of secret corridors." Here, truly, staring at the wall is a form of entertainment. Albrecht von Wallenstein, the one-time owner of the house and gardens, began a meteoric military career in 1622 when the Austrian emperor Ferdinand II retained him to save the empire from the Swedes and Protestants during the Thirty Years' War. Wallenstein, wealthy by marriage, offered to raise an army of 20,000 men at his own cost and lead them personally. Ferdinand II accepted and showered Wallenstein with confiscated land and titles. Wallenstein's first acquisition was this enormous area. After knocking down 23 houses, a brick factory, and three gardens, in 1623 he began to build his magnificent palace. Most of the palace itself now serves the Czech Senate as meeting chamber and offices. The palace's cavernous former Jízdárna, or riding school, now hosts art exhibitions.

Not far from Zoologická zahrada v Praze (Prague Zoo), the public garden has a path in a greenhouse that first takes you through a semidesert environment, then through a tunnel beneath a tropical lake and into a rain forest; you end up cooling off in a room devoted to plants found in tropical mountains. Sliding doors and computer-controlled climate systems help keep it all together. The impressive Fata Morgana, a snaking 429-foot greenhouse that simulates the three different environments, has been drawing large crowds since it opened in 2004. There are lots of other areas in the huge outdoor gardens to explore, too, including beehives, a Japanese ornamental garden, and hilly areas with good views. The trails, including a scented trail and a nature trail, are pleasant as well. And don't miss the vineyard.

A peaceful green space in the heart of the city, the Franciscan Garden was established by monks from the nearby Carmelite Monastery to grow herbs and spices back in the 14th century, around the same time as Nové Mĕsto itself was founded. It remains a small oasis, with benches shaded by rose bushes, low hedges, a playground, and fruit trees and herb gardens that refer back to its original function. There's also a very cute café in the corner, Truhlárna, which does excellent cakes.

A break in the houses along Valdštejnská ulice opens to a gate that leads to five beautifully manicured and terraced baroque gardens, which in season are open to the public. A combined-entry ticket allows you to wander at will, climbing up and down the steps and trying to find the little entryways that lead from one garden to the next. Each of the gardens bears the name of a noble family and includes the Kolovratská zahrada (Kolowrat Garden), Ledeburská zahrada (Ledeburg Garden), Malá a Velká Pálffyovská zahrada (Small and Large Palffy Gardens), and Furstenberská zahrada (Furstenberg Garden).

An unobtrusive door on noisy Karmelitská hides the entranceway to a fascinating sanctuary with one of the best views of Malá Strana. The street door opens onto the intimate courtyard of the Vrtbovský palác (Vrtba Palace). Two Renaissance wings flank the courtyard; the left one was built in 1575, the right one in 1591. The original owner of the latter house was one of the 27 Bohemian nobles executed by the Habsburgs in 1621. The house was given as confiscated property to Count Sezima of Vrtba, who bought the neighboring property and turned the buildings into a late-Renaissance palace. The Vrtba Garden was created a century later. Built in five levels rising behind the courtyard in a wave of statuary-bedecked staircases and formal terraces reaching toward a seashell-decorated pavilion at the top, it's a popular spot for weddings, receptions, and occasional concerts. (The fenced-off garden immediately behind and above belongs to the U.S. Embassy—hence the U.S. flag that often flies there.) The powerful stone figure of Atlas that caps the entranceway in the courtyard and most of the other statues of mythological figures are from the workshop of Mathias Braun, perhaps the best of the Czech baroque sculptors.