Orloj tower vs Charles Bridge tower

Two towers, one decision

Prague has several Gothic towers you can climb, and two of them sit in the Old Town. The Old Town Hall Tower carries the astronomical clock on its wall. Its tower was completed in 1364 and stands 69.5 m high, according to Prague City Tourism. The Old Town Bridge Tower is the Gothic gateway where Charles Bridge reaches the Old Town. It was built together with the bridge on the orders of Charles IV, to designs by Petr Parléř, in the mid-14th century. Visitors often ask which to climb. The short answer is that they show different parts of Prague, and only one of them is the Orloj's own building. The sections below take the questions that decide it.

What you see from the Old Town Hall Tower

Prague City Tourism places the tower's viewing gallery at 42 m. From it you look over Old Town Square: the two Týn Church towers, which Wikipedia gives as 80 m high, the Jan Hus Memorial unveiled in 1915, and the Old Town's roofs running out toward the river and the hills beyond. It is a view of a square and a district, not of a bridge. The GetYourGuide ticket page also says the tower shows the astronomical clock from the outside and from above, which no other tower in Prague can offer, because no other tower carries the Orloj. Inside, the Knights' Hall on the first floor shows a digital model of the clock, according to Prague City Tourism.

What you see from the Old Town Bridge Tower

The Old Town Bridge Tower stands where Charles Bridge meets the Old Town, and its views follow the bridge. Photographs from its gallery show the bridge running out across the Vltava, the river and its boats, and the far bank's roofs and hills. Prague City Tourism calls it one of the most beautiful Gothic gateways in the world and says the gate was also conceived as a symbolic victory arch for the coronation processions of Czech kings. You do not look at a square here; you look along a bridge, and the river lies beneath you. The bridge itself, crowded with people at street level, is easier to read from up here.

The climb and access

The two towers differ most in how you get up. Prague City Tourism says visitors must climb 138 steps to the viewing gallery of the Old Town Bridge Tower, and that the building is not barrier-free. At the Old Town Hall, the way to the tower is barrier-free for wheelchair users: a lift runs from the ground floor to the third floor, a separate lift serves the tower, and a mobile platform connects them. The lift is a separate fee paid on the day. For visitors who cannot manage 138 steps, that difference decides the question, and the GetYourGuide ticket page also marks the tower ticket as wheelchair accessible. The Hall's historical interiors, which the guided circuits visit, are a different matter: Prague City Tourism says they have no barrier-free access.

Read next: Prague Orloj visit: practical guide

The Orloj is not in the picture from the bridge

A common confusion is to expect the astronomical clock to be visible from the Charles Bridge tower, or to expect a ticket for the bridge tower to include it. It does not. The Orloj is mounted on the southern wall of the Old Town Hall in Old Town Square, and that is where you watch the Walk of the Apostles. The bridge tower is a separate monument with a separate keeper's page. If the clock is the reason you are in Prague, the Old Town Hall Tower is the one that belongs to it, and the apostles guide explains how to watch the parade itself.

Read next: Prague Orloj apostles: best viewing

Charles Bridge underneath

The bridge is the other half of the bridge-tower visit. Wikipedia says its construction started in 1357 under King Charles IV and was finished in the early 15th century, and that it is 516 metres long with 16 arches. It was the only means of crossing the Vltava until 1841, and it lies on the historic coronation route of the Bohemian kings. The statues along it, originally erected around 1700, have all been replaced by replicas. From the gallery you can follow the whole line of the bridge, which you cannot do at street level where the crowd fills the view.

Tickets and where they are sold

This site links to one tower ticket, for the Old Town Hall Tower, whose GetYourGuide page names Prague City Tourism as the activity provider. Prague City Tourism also manages the Old Town Bridge Tower, and its own page for that tower lists a combined ticket with the Lesser Town Bridge Tower. The bridge tower is not part of the booking button on this site, so look at its page if you want it. That is a deliberate limit: the guide describes the Old Town Bridge Tower for comparison, and it makes no booking recommendation for it.

Doing both in one day

Charles Bridge runs between the Old Town and the Lesser Town, and the Old Town Bridge Tower guards the Old Town side. The Old Town Hall and its square are also in the Old Town, so both towers belong to the same district and the same walk. The two towers face in opposite directions, one onto the square and one onto the river, so a visitor who climbs both sees the Old Town from both sides. Because the towers share a district, you can do the Old Town Hall Tower first and finish at the bridge, or the other way round. Choose the order by the weather and by what you want to leave for last: the clock and the square, or the river.

Photographing each tower

The towers are also subjects. The Old Town Hall Tower is usually photographed from the square, with the Orloj on its wall and the Týn Church's spires beside it, as the photographs on this site show. The Old Town Bridge Tower is easier to frame from the bridge or from the far bank, as a Gothic gate with the bridge leading into it. Wikipedia notes that the tower's river-facing side was badly damaged by the Swedes in 1648, and that nearly all its Gothic decoration was removed afterward, which explains why its river side looks plainer than its town side. Look for that difference when you photograph it from the bridge.

Who this is not for

If you are afraid of narrow stairs, the bridge tower's 138 steps are a poor fit, and the Old Town Hall Tower's lift, with its separate fee, is the better option. If you want to see the Orloj's mechanism up close, neither tower is a clock workshop: the tower's gallery shows the clock from above, and the Hall's pages describe a digital model of the clock in the Knights' Hall instead. And if you are in Prague for a single hour, pick one tower, not both, and spend the rest of your time at street level, where both the clock and the bridge are free to look at. Climbing is an extra, not an obligation, and a good walk covers a lot of the same ground.

If you only have time for one

Choose the Old Town Hall Tower if you want the square, the Týn Church and the building that carries the Orloj, with the option of a lift. Choose the Old Town Bridge Tower if the bridge and the river matter more and you can manage the steps. With the Orloj as the reason for your trip, the Hall tower is the sensible pick, and it also lets you watch the parade from the square before or after you climb. The home page compares the tickets that go with it, including the one with an audio guide and the one that is a walking tour only. Whichever tower you choose, the ticket calendar is the place to confirm dates.