PRAGUE - The Matějská pilgrimage will take place in the Prague Exhibition Grounds from 21 February to 19 April 2026. Traditional and new foreign attractions await you here. You will have fun in a haunted castle, a house of laughter, shooting galleries, carousels, swings, bouncy castles, rocking boats or on a lochneska. The most famous and most visited pilgrimage in the Czech Republic is the Matějská pilgrimage, held annually in the spring months in the grounds of the Prague Exhibition Centre. You can try around a hundred domestic and foreign attractions. Adrenalin attractions from Holland such as Airborne or SuperMouse.
Among the most popular are still the three-storey haunted castle, the house of laughter, the 80-metre high chain carousel, countless swings and bouncy castles, the Old Bohemian shooting range and the car racing tracks. Of course, there are also stands with fast food, cotton candy, classic sausages, sausages and langos. Oriental sweets and gingerbread hearts are the usual souvenirs from the Matějská pilgrimage. Among the assortment of fair goods there will be toys, fairground jokes, jewellery and textiles. Clowns and fairy-tale creatures will also enrich the programme.
From the history and present of the Matejska pilgrimage
The tradition of the Matthias Pilgrimage has been archived in the National Library since 1595. Originally, they were held on Hanspaulka Square, but the area was not sufficient, so the stalls and carousels were slowly moved to Vítězné Square and later to Hradčanská Square. In 1963 they moved to the Stromovka neighbourhood.
Matthias is the patron/protector of building craftsmen, butchers, confectioners, blacksmiths and tailors. In addition, people pray to him to ward off whooping cough, smallpox and marital infertility. Various traditions have developed around the Apostle Matthias. Even today, pilgrimages to Matthias are still full of people everywhere, and the Matthias coin was minted in the past. St. Matthias also has a lot to do with the weather, there is a saying St. Matthias breaks the ice.
It means that this day should be a harbinger of spring. The custom of shaking the fruit trees on St. Matthew's Day to make them bear fruit abundantly used to be common in our country. In addition, St. Matthew's night served for numerous predictions. For example, ivy leaves were placed in a bowl of water in the evening. If a leaf had softened by morning, it meant illness in the family. Read more here
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