Grebovka Park is a large park (nearly 11 acres) which was established in 1871- 1888 as a part of the Grobov Villa. This beautiful house was built for local businessman Moritz Grobe.
When you see the pretty town houses built on top of the park, you can start to appreciate the sort of clientele that would walk through the park hundred years ago.
Where to find Grebovka Park
This park is set on the hill in Prague 2 – Vinohrady – in between Vrsovice and Nusle.
Why visit Grebovka Park
- Taste the local wine grown on the side of the Grebovka Park, sitting at a historic wooden pavilion with a great views
- Explore the Grotto up the hill and the lower – flatter- part of the park
- Have a freshly made ice cream from a local producer
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History
The land on which the park was later built was originally covered with vineyards, which were planted at the beginning of 14 century. At that time Charles IV brought French vines from his European trips and become interested in producing wine in Bohemia.
The area was divided into smaller vineyards and had several different owners over the years such as – monks from a local monastery, a butcher, wealthy town gentlemen and the headmaster of a Polytechnic School in Prague.
In the 1860s, local businessman Moritz Grobe bought the area and decided to build a neo-renaissance villa on the top part of the hill and the turn the rest into a lavish park and gardens.
The side of the hill wasn’t particularly great for building large house, so he had to re-model the area by digging into the rocks and also filling a quarry that was on the site.
Apparently, they needed so much soil that they brought around 60 000 horses drawn carts full of soil and stones from other building works around Prague – mainly from digging out the Vinohrady tunnel and the Main Train Station. As you can imagine, this was pretty costly and in the end the building work cost around 1 million golden crowns.
Sadly after Moritz Grobe died, his family didn’t use the park and the villa much and at one point it was even rented out to the Habsburgs family.
Similarly like Kinsky Garden Park and the family summer villa, eventually the family sold the park to the local town hall in 1905 and the next year it was opened to the public under the name of Havlickovy Sady. Karel Havlicek Borovsky was a famous Czech writer and journalist.
What to see in the park
Grebovka Pavilion
Built mainly from wood and in a similar style as the Vineyard Summer House, the Grebovka Pavilion was originally used for indoor games, including billiard, balling archery or chess.
During the 1920s part of the building was used for a local nursery, which lasted well into the 1950s. After this time, the building had various uses and sadly by 1989 the whole building was in a catastrophic state and in need of complete re-refurbishment.
If you visit the pavilion today, you’ll feel like you are back in the 19th century – the whole building was tastefully renovated and there is a coffee house there and you can even rent part of the building for weddings, meetings or special celebrations.
This area of the park looks like it has always been there – a beautiful house carved into the rocks with a hidden cave behind. The truth is that this is a completely man made cave completed with realistic rocks and mini caves inside the house.
Grotta
Back in the 19th century it was popular to build fake rock formations, caves and crumbling castles in parks and gardens. It was the age of romanticism when people liked to visit nature and those who could afford it even built their own in their gardens.
In it’s heyday, the Grotta was also used as a summer restaurant with people sitting around drinking beer or lemonade and listening to live music.
You can still walk around and inside the Grotta although some parts of the narrow cave walks or tunnels are closed for public.
Vineyard Summer House (Altan)
The current vineyard was planted at the time of Moritz Grobe and despite the frequent ownership of the whole park, wine was continuously grown and has been harvested ever since.
Several times, for example when the vineyard was hit by the bomb during the Second World War, it was nearly decided that the vineyard would be replaced by fruit trees (as these were easier to look after).
Fortunately, this never happened, although the vineyard was neglected for many years, mainly during the reign of communism. Since the vineyard was owned by the town, any wine produced was only available for special occasions and hosting VIP guests at town hall meetings.
These days, the vineyard produces about 4 000 litres of wine and you can sample them in the pavilion’s restaurant.
Grebovka Villa
The villa is owned privately and it’s not open to the public, but you can still walk around the villa and sit in front of the building to admire the Prague views.
Grebovka wine cellar
Located at the far end of the Grebovka vineyard, this hidden gem is run by an experienced family of vinemakers, who have been looking after the vineyard since 2008 and making wine from seven different types of grapes, for example Souvignier Gris, Cabernet Cortis, Hibernal, Muller Thurgau or Pinot Noir.
The wine cellar is open usually just on Fridays from 2 pm till about 10 pm and it’s a great opportunity to sample some truly local wine directly from the vinemakers (please bring cash as there are no facilities for card payments).
Lower Landhauska & Upper Landhauska
These are two buildings (the lower one is much larger) originally built in the 16 and 17 century (and since re-built in the 19 century) which were used as a houses or summer residences. The houses are in private use – the upper Landhauska has a wine shop in and the lower one is privately used as short term accommodation.
Events at Havlickovy Sady (Grebovka Park)
There are many events held during the year, both at the Vineyard Altan and also at the Grebovka Restaurant.
In the summer – usually early in the month of June – there is an Apetit Piknik festival, which includes many food stalls, tastings, music and activities for children. Entry to the festival is free.
In the winter, if you are thinking of visiting Prague in January, the park has an a large outdoor ice-skating rink where you can rent ice-skates and spend a few hours practising your piruletes!
If you are visiting Prague in September, the Grebovka Vineyard always has vine grapes harvest celebrations with guided tours of the vineyard and tasting of the local vine.
Location
Prague 2 – Vinohrady area – Havlickovy Sady (Grebovka Park), access from Rybalkova Ulice (and other streets nearby)
How to get to the Grebovka park
You can either walk up from Vrsovicka Street and follow the Botic Stream getting off tram number 7 or 24 at Otakarova Tram Stop.
Or you can walk down the hill from Francouzka Street and trams 4 or my favourite tram route number 22. Streets Rybalkova or U Vrsovickeho nadrazi back directly onto the park.
The Grebovka Park is about 20-30 minutes by public transport from the centre. To get to Grébovka Park (Havlíčkovy sady) from the Old Town Square, you can take the metro line A from Staroměstská station to Náměstí Míru station.
From there, you can take tram number 22 towards Nadrazi Hostivar and get off at the Havlíčkovy sady stop. The park is located just a short walk from the tram stop.
Alternatively, you can take the tram number 22 all the way from the Prague Castle, Malostranska, Újezd or Narodni Divadlo, which are all in the tourist areas of Prague in the centre.
Entrance
The entrance to the park is free. The park is open all year round, but the gates close at 10 pm in the winter and at midnight in the summer.
Facilities
There is an outdoor beer garden at the main entrance from the Rybalkova Street and the public toilets (payable) are also located there.
In the summer you can also find an ice cream & coffee cart at the entrance. The ice-cream is one of the best ice-creams in Prague – locally made with fabulous flavours and they make both sorbet and regular dairy ice-cream too.
Food, snacks & Grebovka wine is served at the Vineyard Pavilion, Grébovka wine cellar and at Pavilion Grebovka.
You can also buy local vine at the Grebovka vine shop, which is next to the entrance gates on the top of the hill.
There are two children playgrounds – one at the bottom of the park towards Kosicka Street and one at the top/main entrance next to the toilets, ice-creams and outdoor beer garden.
What else you can see nearby
Don’t miss the beautiful town houses on ‘U Havlickovych Sadu’ street – directly behind the Grotta. These were built towards the end of the 19 century for a well to do people who wanted to live with the view of the park.
The cinema ‘ Kino Pilotu’ is just outside the park on Donska Street and it’s a perfect stop for the latest art film, Czech films with English subtitles, but also the latest blockbuster movies. It’s one of the many Prague independent art cinemas and one of my favourites.
If you want to walk back towards the centre of Prague and get a feel for what Vinohrady wouldn’t have looked like in the 19 Century, walk out of the park via the Grotto and take the U Havlickovych Sadu and then Kopernikova Street which will eventually turn into Americka Street.
Keep walking taking any street turns you like and after about 15-20 minutes you will arrive at the Namesti Miru (The Peace Square) or I.P. Pavlova. Namesti Miru has a beautiful church called Ludmila and IP Pavlova has a busy farmer’s market, which is always open until quite late. From there you are only 10 minutes from top of the main Prague square – the Wenceslas Square or you can take a tram to the centre from there.
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Hope this blog post inspires you and as ever I’d love to what you think! Let me know in the comments below or catch up with me over on Instagram.
Magdalena
This blog post was originally written on 13 October 2021 and last updated on 6 June 2023