Ten centuries of European architecture & heritage
Originally a single-storey construction, this magnificent three-winged palace was built between 1703 and 1706 by the architect Giovanni Battista Aliprandi for Count Karel Přehořovský of Kvasejovice, Master of the Royal Mint. In 1753, it was...
This monumental early baroque palace in the Malá Strana district was constructed between the years 1623 and 1630 for Count Albrecht von Wallenstein (Czech ‘Valdštejn), one of the most significant and colourful figures of the...
The rococo interiors of the southern range of the presidential palace are richly decorated in gilded stucco in the manner of the adjacent (and much earlier) Spanish Hall. The entire wing was part of the...
In 1722, the celebrated Prague architect Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer purchased a plot of land formerly held by the Jesuits, where his patron Count Jan Václav Michna already owned a substantial garden. Over the course of...
Originally erected at the centre of Prague’s Horse Market (Koňský trh) this statue of Bohemia’s tenth-century ruler is the work of the prolific Baroque artist Jan Jiří Bendl, who sculpted it in 1678 in exchange...
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Prague was struck by devastating plagues, first in 1680 and again in 1787. The area of Olšany, then outside the city walls, was chosen to accommodate the dead. The...
The three figures adorning this building in Prague’s Old Town first appeared in the 1580s, at which time the house was known as The Three Angels. In 1877 a radical neo-Renaissance reconstruction took place: a...
Descended from a distinguished Austrian family, Count Johann Wenzel (Jan Václav) von Gallas managed an extensive diplomatic portfolio. As well as being Ambassador to London and the Hague during the War of the Spanish Succession,...
Ordained by Charles IV in 1347 on the day after his coronation, the original intention was to construct a great triple-aisled basilica reflecting the status of Prague as a second Rome. Even its name –...
In 1285, twenty years after his father Otakar II first invited the Augistinians to Bohemia, Wenceslas II granted them in perpetuity the church of Saint Thomas in Prague’s Malá Strana (Lesser Quarter) district. The church...
