Many sightseeing routes in Prague start at the Powder Tower. After all, it was from here long ago that the Royal Route to Prague Castle began.
Initially, it was planned that the tower gate would become one of the 13 entrances to the Old Town, as well as an ornament for the royal palace. But because of mass popular unrest, the king abandoned the construction and moved back to Prague Castle. The rich interior decor of the new structure was almost completely lost in the middle of the 18th century during the siege by the Prussian army.
For a long time, gunpowder was stored in the tower, which is why it came to be called the Powder Tower. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was restored and completed, though no longer in the Gothic style, but rather in a pseudo-Gothic one. The facade is decorated with sculptures of Czech kings, above whom angels hover. And on the corners you can see allegorical figures of the virtues of Czech rulers. In the passage beneath the tower, a bust of a knight is installed, on whose ribbon there is an inscription calling on the residents of Prague to be orderly and honest.
Inside the Powder Tower there is now a museum, where photography exhibitions are often held. All the interiors are done in the Gothic style, and the windows are decorated with stained glass. The vaulted ceilings on the different floors of the tower deserve special attention; all of them are adorned with the coats of arms and "eagles" of the Czech lands.
