Speculum Alchemiae Museum

Speculum Alchemiae Museum

Speculum Alchemiae Museum
4.5
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Monday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
About
Our museum called Speculum Alchemiae, is situated in one of the oldest houses in Prague. There are secret alchemical laboratories from the 16th century in the museum underground that were built for the king Rudolf II. The alchemists of that time used to prepare elixirs in there. The museum building also includes a shop, where equal elixirs can be bought. These elixirs are prepared under strict conditions according to their original recipes which have been found here. Newly, we also offer a unique tour of magical places in Prague which are connected with the Speculum Alchemiae museum. The guided tour includes the Prague Castle, Vysehrad, Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, and the museum. At these places you learn about many amazing legends and mythological stories associated with the so-called Prague Magical Triangle.
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The area
Address
Neighbourhood: Stare Mesto (Old Town)
One of the oldest neighbourhoods in town represents the medieval heart of Prague. It’s no surprise it is bustling with tourists every time of day. Križovnický square, overlooking Charles Bridge with Prague Castle in the background, is probably the most beautiful square in the city. Its unique historical atmosphere of gothic houses and churches, cobblestone streets and squares, and stone towers blend together with the modern era. A vast array of bars, restaurants, dance clubs, international brand shops, galleries and hotels bring life to the old city. With its charming and picturesque cobblestone streets, the nightlife and parties will surely be unforgettable.
How to get there
  • Old Town • 7 min walk
  • Republic square • 10 min walk
Reach out directly
See what travellers are saying
  • Simon Bubach
    Trollhattan, Sweden6 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Unique place
    Been here several times, most recently with my brother January 2023. It's quite small but cheap and with a guided tour. Depending on which guide you get, there will be slightly different things covered as there is more history connected to this place than can be covered in just one visit.
    Visited February 2023
    Travelled with family
    Written 25 February 2024
  • The Czech Advisor
    2 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Speculum Alchemiae Museum (Muzeum Speculum Alchemiae) The Czech Advisor
    en, It was amazing. We recommend. Just be careful so you dont fall there a lot of rocks on the ground. cz, Bylo to hezké. Doporučujeme. Jenom buďte opatrný ať nespadnete je tam hodně kamenů na zemi.
    Visited May 2024
    Travelled with family
    Written 8 May 2024
  • Gary M
    Leeds, United Kingdom538 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    A really interesting tour!
    A fascinating tour about alchemy, I would recommend it to anyone who visits Prague. The tours are led by a knowledgeable guide and last about 30 mins. Feedback regarding the positions! Make some tiny ones, maybe less than 100ml so we can take them home in our carry on!
    Visited April 2024
    Travelled with friends
    Written 14 May 2024
  • Elisa A
    2 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    A hidden hide!
    Fantastic little museum that is a thousand times better than the big tourist attractions otherwise in Prague. The service is really good there, they are very friendly compared to other places in Prague where we have experienced unusually bad service! It was really cheap compared to what you get out of the trip. The guided tour was really exciting. You first enter a main room where you get a little story about what they were doing at the time, and then comes the main event. The secret tunnel down to their hidden lab and workplace. It was really fascinating to see and hear about. You get a really good insight into what it was like to be a scientist back in the 6th century and how they had to hide their research from the church while they worked for the king. The guided tour lasts about 30 minutes, (plus questions) All in all a fantastic experience, definitely something you should experience when you are in Prague.
    Visited July 2024
    Travelled with family
    Written 19 July 2024
  • ryu
    Osaka, Japan90 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Alchemical museums
    Tours in English were hourly. I went to the store on the day and got a Reservation immediately. The inside of the building is not large, but I was surprised by the various devices. It was interesting to see the idea of alchemy at the time. If you are interested, I don't think you will lose out.
    Visited August 2024
    Travelled solo
    Written 17 August 2024
  • MartinUOlesen
    Fredericia, Denmark79 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Exciting visit to the history of alchemy
    A really exciting visit to a truly re-found alchemistry workshop. One comes on a half-hour guided tour of the workshops as they looked in the Middle Ages. The guide was good at telling details and putting it into a historical context.
    Visited September 2024
    Travelled as a couple
    Written 21 September 2024
  • Maris
    2,169 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Very nice!
    Very nice visit to this old museum and a look underground. Guided tour in English , adult 200czk and children/students 150czk. Whether it is all original I don't know but it looks very nice and the guide was very passionate about telling. All in all it takes half an hour
    Visited November 2024
    Travelled with family
    Written 2 November 2024
  • Jkl
    United States99 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Genuine historic site
    Excellent authentic historical site, not a tourist trap. Very interesting to see and learn about the history here. Bring cash, Czech or Euro. There is a bank nearby with ATMs. The potions are very charming souvenirs, mixed by monks according to ancient recipes, in Czech glass bottles, some hand painted.
    Visited June 2024
    Travelled solo
    Written 2 November 2024
  • RosieTX
    Plano, Texas12 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Just go!
    Very interesting and something you will not find mentioned in the usual tour books. We heard about it but not until the final few hours in Prague did we end up going. So glad we did not miss it. A very good hour spent. Just not the time of the next English tour if that's what you need.
    Visited November 2024
    Travelled with family
    Written 1 December 2024
  • LittleRedLaura
    Caernarfon, United Kingdom202 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Small but fascinating museum
    Fascinating little museum, only accessible with a booked tour. Consisting of a couple of furnished rooms, then a genuinely old underground series of old rooms & passages, it's compact and quite short (30 mins) but very atmospheric. The member of staff taking our tour was very good and informative and the enterance room/shop you start & finish in is beautifully decorated.
    Visited October 2024
    Travelled with friends
    Written 25 December 2024
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4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles1,035 reviews
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These reviews have been automatically translated from their original language.
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Amanabeba
Milano, Italia235 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2025 • Couples
This half-an-hour tour is magically directed by Daniel, the prepared guide who’s introducing visitors into the museum. With his wisdom on alchemy he will tell Praha’s stories along centuries. Definitely this museum deserves a visit. No credit card or bancomat accepted, only cash!
Written 5 January 2025
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jeremy Y
2 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2023 • Family
Fun, interesting tour through previous alchemist labs and tunnels. Some of the items in the labs are recreations, but it still felt very authentic. High recommend. Note: the museum only accepts cash so ensure you have Korunas or Euros available
Written 12 January 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

JRMADA
United States3,461 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
July 2022
Don’t miss this when visiting Prague. This is a very unique place with some interesting history. Unlike someone said here, no one tried to get us to buy anything. The tour was very informative and the guide took her time to explain series of events and answer any questions. This place is well preserved and some amazing pictures can be taken. It is not about wizards and magic (not Harry Potter like), but about science and chemistry. The entry fee is reasonable, but they only take cash payments, so bring cash with you. At this time, they take Euros and the exchange favors you, but if you read this sometime in the future, please contact them for accepted currency. Not suitable for kids under 10, or people with limited mobility. We loved it and hope you do too.
Written 20 July 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Toblje
Zurich, Switzerland8,429 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Nov 2023 • Couples
This museum can only be visited as part of a guided tour. During opening hours, tours start approximately every 30 minutes. On the short tour through the underground laboratories, you can learn some interesting facts about alchemy, which flourished in Prague, especially under Emperor Rudolf II (1552 - 1612). Unfortunately, there is not much to see other than a few old ovens and empty bottles. After the tour, you can buy overpriced, alcoholic "healing potions" as souvenirs in the entrance area. It's a shame, because with a little imagination, there is still a lot of tourist potential to be gained, especially when it comes to topics related to magic and occultism. For EUR 10 per person, we were offered too little here compared to other attractions in Prague. We would therefore not visit the museum a second time.

Important: No credit/debit cards are accepted. Tickets can only be purchased with cash.
Google
Written 15 November 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Journey55283158505
2 contributions
2.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2024 • Family
This was disappointing. The main upstairs “museum” was full of props and as far as we could tell, nothing was an actual artifact from the time period that the museum was centered on. The tour guide was very knowledgeable but for me it wasn’t very interesting.
Written 30 September 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Sabor117
3 contributions
2.0 of 5 bubbles
July 2024 • Solo
This was a surprisingly short and hidden away little museum. Can only be done as a tour and unfortunately the tour was not very good. It might have been because I went on the last tour of the day, but the tour guide could not have been more disinterested. She clearly had a script memorised which she recited by rite but didn't really do much to add much in the way of interesting stories or fun tangents which I feel a small museum like this would really rely on. It seemed to be presented instead in a quite factual way, but then all the rooms seemed to be mostly set up with replicas and decorations rather than actual historical items, so the tone was a bit all over the place too.

Lastly there was a hilarious moment after the first information of the first room, where my group was left standing in confused silence for AGES before she suddenly continued the tour. It genuinely seemed like the tour only consisted of one room and this was just a very confusing experience.

Overall, pretty disappointed. Especially given that, also confusingly, the museum is NOT part of the Prague city card.
Written 12 July 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Millie B
London, UK179 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2024 • Couples
Went after a friend personally recommended this, she thought it was really interesting. Maybe because of this I went in with expectations too high.

It was a very short tour of some interesting underground rooms, which are tackily decorated to ‘recreate’ what the rooms might have looked like when the alchemist supposedly lived there. But some of it seemed quite random: e.g. dresses on mannequins in the reception room seemed out of place.

I couldn’t really understand the guide - the snippets about how the church viewed alchemy at the time was interesting- but she was talking too fast and I didn’t catch much of what was said. It altogether felt very rushed.

Not worth the money, the time waiting for the tour to start, or the time spent on the tour itself.

Maybe visit for a unique shop but don’t bother with the ‘museum’!
Written 9 February 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Gina Marie
Germany19 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2024 • Friends
The museum is rather small, but still worth seeing. You can go in every half hour on a guided tour, which lasts about half an hour. There you are taken to original laboratories from the 16th century. Our tour was in English and we were led through the corridors to the laboratories by a young woman, where we were able to learn a lot about the history of laboratories and alchemists in Prague. A clear recommendation from me!
Google
Written 7 January 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Sara H
7 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2024 • Couples
Speculum Alchemiae is a hidden gem in Prague! This fascinating museum takes you into the world of alchemy with its secret underground labs and mysterious history. A must-see for history, alchemy and magic lovers!
Written 27 December 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Victoria S
Kokkola, Finland24 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
June 2022 • Friends
Very atmospheric and definitely worth a visit, just remember to check ahead at what times the guided tours start as you're not allowed to enter on your own. What we thought was missing in the presentation given by our guide was information about the actual practices of alchemists and the uses of different tools displayed. Our guide also spoke very fast which sometimes made it difficult to keep up, but we appreciated that there was time for questions after each segment. All in all, the tour is more for entertainment than educational purposes. An addition I would like to suggest for the gift shop is more literature about the subject for those wishing to really dive into it.
Written 7 August 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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