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 tempera ...

, Czech Republic. 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 other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...

. 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 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 and Vojtěch Ignác Ullmann. Prag Jugendstil Hauptbahnhof 7

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, 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 Žižkov is a cadastral district of Prague, Czech Republic. Most of Žižkov lies in the municipal and administrative district of Prague 3, except for very small parts which are in Prague 8 and Prague 10. Prior to 1922, Žižkov was an inde ...

via an underpass. The station was the embarkation point for the children evacuated to London Liverpool Street station via the Port of Harwich by

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 Bohe ...

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 EuroNight, abbreviated EN, is a European train category which denotes many main-line national and international night train services within the Western and Central European inter-city rail network. Overview The classification and name were b ...

services to Berlin,

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 lar ...

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

Pendolino Pendolino (from Italian ''pendolo'' "pendulum", and ''-ino,'' a diminutive suffix) is an Italian family of tilting trains used in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the UK, the ...

. 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 train operator in the Czech Republic, established in 2010. It launched inter-city services in November 2012 on the Prague–Ostrava route, on which state-owned operator Czech Railways an ...

RegioJet RegioJet a.s. (Reporting mark, 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 regist ...

, and

Arriva Arriva plc is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England.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 Republi ...

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 fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 169,000 inhabitants. The city is known worldwi ...

České Budějovice České Budějovice (; german: Budweis ) is a city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 93,000 inhabitants. It is located in the valley of the Vltava River, at its confluence with the Malše. České Budějovice is ...

, and

Olomouc Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019). Located on t ...

Suburban services

The station is served by most of the Esko Prague 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 Václav Havel Airport Prague ( cs, Letiště Václava Havla Praha), formerly ''Prague Ruzyně International Airport'' ( cs, Mezinárodní letiště Praha-Ruzyně, ) , is the international airport of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. ...

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 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