Amadeus | Archbishop's Palace, Hradčanské náměstí — the Emperor's court in rococo cream

Emperor Joseph II picks his way through a keyboard piece with one finger, and Mozart takes the sheet, plays it back from memory, then improvises it into something better while the court holds its breath. That humiliation of Salieri's little march happens inside the Archbishop's Palace on Hradčanské náměstí, standing in for the Hofburg in Vienna.

Forman needed a Habsburg-scale interior that had not been turned into offices, and the Prague archbishops had kept theirs. The palace has faced the castle gate since 1562; the front you see now is Johann Josef Wirch's rococo remodelling of the 1760s, cream and white with the archbishop's arms over the door. Inside are Baroque state rooms, French tapestries and a chapel — which is why the film could put a court in them without building a set.

The catch is honest: the interiors open to the public just once a year, on Maundy Thursday, and the queue starts early. The square outside is open always, and it is worth the walk on its own. Stand with your back to the castle gate and you have the palace, the Schwarzenberg sgraffito, and the whole city dropping away behind Hradčany's rooftops.

Time a spring visit around Maundy Thursday if you want the rooms. Otherwise come at dusk, when the guards change below and the cream façade goes pink.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC-licensed view of the Archbishop's Palace, Prague.