A gate on the northern side of Prague Castle leads to the Powder Bridge (Prašný most; 1540), which spans the Stag Moat and leads to the Royal Garden, which started life as a Renaissance garden built by Ferdinand I in 1534. It is graced by several gorgeous Renaissance structures.
The most beautiful of the garden’s buildings is the Ball-Game House (Míčovna; 1569), a masterpiece of Renaissance sgraffito where the Habsburgs once played a primitive version of badminton. To the east is the Summer Palace (Letohrádek; 1538–60), or Belvedere, the most authentic Italian Renaissance building outside Italy, and to the west the former Riding School (Jízdárna; 1695). All three are used as venues for temporary exhibitions of modern art.
