Palais Sternberg

Sternberg Palace is a Baroque building in Prague that now serves as a gallery of the National Gallery Prague and is a protected cultural monument. The site originally held two Gothic houses from the mid-14th century, which were replaced after 1698 by the construction of the palace. The architect is not known with certainty, and various names from the Baroque period have been put forward. The south wing remained unfinished for a long time and was not completed until between 1835 and 1842. The facade is divided into two sections, a reflection of the original separation of the Gothic buildings that preceded it. The two-story building encloses a central courtyard with four wings. Since hardly any Baroque interiors have survived, the rooms present a stylistic mix of different eras.

The palace's history is closely tied to Czech cultural history. After it was acquired by the Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts in the early 19th century, it temporarily housed collections of the Bohemian National Museum and served as a workplace for prominent scholars and artists. Later, various institutions used the building, including a school for people with intellectual disabilities and a military school. After renovation work beginning in 1946, the palace became the seat of the National Gallery. A dramatic event was the theft of four Picasso paintings in 1991, which were recovered after an international manhunt.

Today, you can visit a new permanent exhibition that recalls the works shown during the era of the Patriotic Friends of the Arts. Outside the west wing, a raised garden extends above the Stag Moat. The park contains a pond as well as several sculptures, including a large stork and a bronze statue of a lion crushing a boa constrictor. The garden's present form dates from its handover to the National Gallery in 1947.