Praha hlavní nádraží is the largest railway station in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It opened in 1871 as Franz Josef Station, after

Franz Joseph I of Austria Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the Grand title of the Emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg m ...

. During the First Republic and from 1945 to 1948 the station was called Wilson Station ( cs, Wilsonovo nádraží), after the former President of the United States

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

. In 2014, the station served 224,505 trains (610 daily) and more than 53,000,000 passengers.

Overview

The

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

station building and station hall were built between 1901 and 1909, designed by Czech architect

Josef Fanta Josef Fanta (7 December 1856 in Sudoměřice u Tábora – 20 June 1954 in Prague) was a Czech architect, furniture designer, sculptor and painter. A student of Josef Zítek, Fanta developed into one of the most prominent representatives of C ...

on the site of the old dismantled

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

station designed by Czech architects

Antonín Viktor Barvitius Antonín Viktor Barvitius (July 14, 1823 in Prague – July 20, 1901), also known as ''Anton Barvitius'', was a Czech architect working in Revivalism architecture. Life Barvitius originally studied philosophy and law, but then switched his stu ...

and

Vojtěch Ignác Ullmann Vojtěch Ignác Ullmann (23 April 1822 in Prague – 17 September 1897 in Příbram) was a Czech architect working in Revivalism architecture, particularly Renaissance Revival architecture. Life Ullmann studied architecture at the Academy of Fin ...

The station was extended by a new terminal building, built between 1972 and 1979, including an underground metro station and a main road on the roof of the terminal. The new terminal building claimed a large part of the park, and the construction of the road cut off the neo-renaissance station hall from the town. In 2011 a partial refurbishment of the station was completed by Italian company

Grandi Stazioni ( en, Great Stations) is a member company of Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato ( en, State Railways) group. It was created to rehabilitate and manage, even commercially, the 13 biggest Italian railway stations. Stations under management The Roma ...

, which had leased retail space for 30 years from 2002. In 2016 Grandi Stazioni lost the concession after failing to complete the renovation of the historic building by the extended contractual deadline. In September 2021, a second exit was opened connecting the station to Winston Churchill Square in Žižkov via an underpass. The station was the embarkation point for the children evacuated to

London Liverpool Street station Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a London station group, central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the Wards of the City of ...

via the

Port of Harwich Harwich International Port is a North Sea seaport in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports. It lies on the south bank of the River Stour, Suffolk, River Stour one mile upstream from the town of Harwich, opposite the Port of Felixstowe. The ...

Nicholas Winton Sir Nicholas George Winton (born Wertheim; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British humanitarian who helped to rescue children who were at risk of being murdered by Nazi Germany. Born to German-Jewish parents who had emigrated to Britain at ...

. In 2009 a statue was unveiled on platform 1 commemorating this.

Train services

Long-distance services

The station is an international transport hub, handling services to Germany (

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, Bavaria-

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

RE (Regio-Express) services, and

EuroCity EuroCity, abbreviated as EC, is a cross-border train category within the European inter-city rail network. In contrast to trains allocated to the lower-level "IC" (InterCity) category, EC trains are international services that meet 20 criteri ...

/ EuroNight services to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

and

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

), Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Serbia, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Croatia in summer. Services are operated by express trains, and also by

ČD Class 680 ČD Class 680 are EMUs operating in the Czech Republic, using tilting Pendolino technology intended for the SuperCity train service. Built by Alstom (originally Fiat Ferroviaria), they were largely based on the nine-car ETR 470. While testin ...

Pendolino. Services to Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia, and Poland are also operated by open-access train operators

LEO Express Leo Express, formerly Rapid Express, is an open access operator, open-access train operator in the Czech Republic, established in 2010. It launched InterCity, inter-city services in November 2012 on the Prague–Ostrava route, on which state-ow ...

RegioJet RegioJet a.s. ( VKM: RJ) is a private Czech provider of passenger rail and bus transport. The company Student Agency, owned by Czech businessman Radim Jančura, is the sole owner. A sister company of the same name, with its registered office in ...

, and Arriva.

Regional services

In addition to international services, trains serve most of the larger Czech cities, such as

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

Plzeň Plzeň (; German and English: Pilsen, in German ) is a city in the Czech Republic. About west of Prague in western Bohemia, it is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 169,000 inhabita ...

, České Budějovice, and Olomouc.

Suburban services

The station is served by most of the

Esko Prague Esko Prague is a commuter rail or S-Bahn system, part of the Prague Integrated Transport (PID), serving the city of Prague and the surrounding areas of the Central Bohemian Region. Train lines that are included in the PID system are labeled by let ...

train lines which are dispatched from the nearby Masaryk Railway station.

Intercity Bus services

Buses towards Český Krumlov, České Budějovice, Tábor and other Czech cities, as well as the Airport Express bus service to Václav Havel Airport Prague maintained by České dráhy, depart from Wilsonova street in front of the historical building.

City transport at the station

The station is served by the Prague Metro's Line C directly in the area, and by the

Prague tram system The Prague tramway network is the largest tram network in the Czech Republic, consisting of of track, 882 tram vehicles (one of the largest fleets in the world) and 26 daytime routes, 2 historical and 10 night routes with a total route length of ...

outside the station about 500 meters past the park in front of the new terminal.

References

Short describtion of Prague Main railway station
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prague Main Railway Station Hlavni Nadrazi Railway stations opened in 1871 Art Nouveau architecture in Prague Art Nouveau railway stations Transport infrastructure completed in 1909 Brutalist architecture in the Czech Republic 19th-century establishments in Bohemia