Golts-Kinsky Palace. Summer Palace Kinsky Liechtenstein Palace on Kampe
The Kinski Palace (Palac Kinskych) is located on the eastern side of the Old Town Square. This is one of the most beautiful objects of Prague Rococo.
The palace was built in 1755-1765 by Anshelm Lurag according to the plans of K.I. Dientzenhofer. Before this, there were three early medieval buildings on the site of the Palace. The south house, first mentioned in 1363, was built on the site of a 12th-century Romanesque building. The first floor of this house was built of hewn stone; you can still find this masonry in the basement of the Kinsky Palace.
After 1560, when the house belonged to Trček from Lipa and later to the Přichovskis from Godeyov, reconstruction work was carried out in the Renaissance style. The northern part of the modern palace arose in the second half of the 13th century. Thanks to the medieval lifestyle, today's cellars retain the original ground floor, including early Gothic arches.
The houses were first united in 1508, when Albrecht of Kolovrat rented them. Around 1583, the northern part of the building was reconstructed, during which, in particular, a front balcony was installed. Later, in 1750, Jan Arnost Count Goltz received the northern part and also bought the southern part, combining them into one building. When the palace was sold to František Oldřich Kinski in 1768, the palace was completed and decorated with sculptures by I.F. Platzer. In the 30s of the 19th century, the palace was further expanded by adding a northern house, which also retained the Gothic cellars, and was designed in a neoclassical style.
The Kinskys owned the palace until 1945, after which it was confiscated according to the decrees of President Benes, and came into the possession of the state.
This palace stands out from its surroundings not only because of its beauty, but also because its facade with rich stucco cartouches protrudes forward so much that there are four windows on each side. There is a whole legend associated with the implementation of this architectural solution.
Count Franz Oldrich Kinsky wanted his palace to attract the attention of everyone who comes to the Old Town Square and looks towards the Tyn Church at first sight. The builder proposed a solution - it was enough to push the façade of the building onto the square. The Count liked the idea and immediately agreed. The main difficulty was getting permission from the Old Town Councilors. They did not like this idea, and they refused the count. He, in turn, bribed three advisers and began construction.
The consuls at the town hall saw that the count was building in his own way, regardless of their ban, and summoned him to the town hall. The count presented three permits and spoke about the bribery of three advisers. Soon they were tried and, by decision of the burgomaster, executed.
However, the permission was valid, no one could remove the three signatures, and the palace was built according to the builder’s drawings and the count’s wishes.
Kinsky Palace is one of two Prague houses in which the famous writer Franz Kavka lived. There was also a haberdashery store owned by his father.
Currently, the Kinsky Palace belongs to the National Gallery of Prague. It houses exhibitions of art from Asia and the medieval Mediterranean. Here is a collection of graphics and the Kinsky family library.
Kinski Palace is a prime example of the Rococo style in Prague. It is included in the List of National Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic. Today the building is used as an exhibition hall for the National Gallery.
In 1755-1765 According to the design of Kilian Dientzenhofer under the direction of the architect Anselmo Lurago, a palace with a pink and white facade was built on the site of 3 houses for Count Jan Goltz.
A distinctive feature of the palace is the fact that it does not stand in line with other buildings, but protrudes several meters ahead. It is believed that during his lifetime the count managed to bribe the officials of the time in order to obtain an unusual favor. They were subsequently hanged in the square in front of the palace. Some deny the veracity of this fact, and say that the architect only followed the order of the previous houses.
The palace is an example of Prague Rococo. The two exits are framed by columns and connected by a narrow balcony on the 2nd floor. The façade is decorated with stucco decorations by S. Bossi, and at the top there are statues of ancient gods by I. Platzer.
After the count's death in 1768, the palace was bought by Stepan Kinsky. The Kinsky family owned it until 1945. In 1836, reconstruction began, another house was added to the Golz-Kinských Palace, and the interiors were decorated in the style of late classicism.
In the 19th century, a German gymnasium was located on the 3rd floor, where he studied. The ground floor was occupied by his father's haberdashery store. In 1905, the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize was Baroness Bertha von Suttner, who was born in this palace in 1843. From 1922 to 1934 the Polish Embassy was located here. In 1948, Klement Gottwald spoke from the balcony of the Golts-Kinsky Palace, after which the communists came to power. In 1995 - 2000, the Kinsky library, Romanesque and Gothic cellars were restored.
Currently, the palace premises house a Kafka bookshop, the Information Center of the National Gallery and premises for temporary exhibitions, offices and a cafe.
How to get there?
Take metro line A to Staroměstská station.
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The Kinsky Palace in Prague forms a significant part of the northeastern frame of the Old Town Square. A bright building with rich plasticity in the Rococo style stands on a par with the Gothic house At the Bell and the Tyn School. And above all this architectural abundance rise the towers of the temple.
The palace is also known as Goltz-Kinsky, since the building acquired its current appearance in the 18th century, thanks to the last two owners - Count Johann Goltz and then Count Franz Kinsky.
History of the object
In the 18th century, Prague experienced a boom in the reconstruction of secular buildings. Many of the palaces in the Old Town were expanded by combining several houses and underwent renovation. However, new architectural styles appeared only in the reconstruction of facades, while the foundation of the buildings remained the same.
This is precisely the strategy that was applied to the Kinsky Palace. The palace was built in 1755-65. in the late Baroque style, combining three houses from the Middle Ages. In the underground part of the building, ancient masonry with Gothic vaults is still preserved.
Moreover, the two buildings had already been united by that time. Since 1583, they were decorated with a balcony, which was changed as a result of further reconstructions.
In 1768, Franz Ulritz Kinsky organized the final decoration of the facade. Sculptures from I.F. Platzer’s workshop dedicated to the elements were installed on the pediment. The façade, in accordance with the Rococo style, was decorated with lush ornaments and reliefs. Large medallions depicting the Madonna and Child and John of Nepomuk were placed above a row of windows in the Kinsky house. In the center of the facade is the coat of arms of the Kinsky family.
Reconstruction in the 1830s added massive columns to the palace. The facade of the palace still stands out among the buildings with its original design. Until 1949, the palace belonged to the Kinsky family, after which it came under the control of the state.
Countess Kinski, who became the second woman in the world to receive the Nobel Prize, was born and raised in the palace. Bertha von Suttner was awarded the Peace Prize in 1905.
At the end of the 19th century, a German gymnasium operated at the palace, where Franz Kafka, who lived near Old Town Square, studied.
The place of the Kinsky Palace in modern life in Prague
Palác Kinských is a national cultural monument. The palace is one of six sites of the National Gallery of the Czech Republic. The photo shows the entrance to the gallery:
Story
The palace was built for Count Jan Armost Göltz in 1755-1765. The building was designed by the court architect Kilian Dientzenhofer, and construction was carried out under the direction of Anselmo Lurago. The building was built in the Rococo style, painted pink and white. On the facade there are stucco decorations by S. Bossi. The upper floors are decorated with many statues of ancient gods, sculpted by Ignaz Platzer. Two symmetrically located entrances are connected by a narrow balcony on the second floor.
After the death of J. A. Goeltz, in 1768, a representative of the Kinsky family, Stepan Kinsky, acquired the palace from the Goeltz family, which is why the building got its name. During the period when the palace belonged to the Kinskys. its interiors were restored in the classicist style. In 1835, the palace was reconstructed and added to another building under the direction of the architect Kranner.
Bertha von Suttner was born in the palace on June 9, 1843, née Countess Kinski, who later became a prominent figure in the international pacifist movement, the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize () and the second woman to receive the Nobel Prize (after Marie Curie).
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, Hermann Kafka, the father of the writer Franz Kafka, ran a haberdashery store on the ground floor of the palace, and Franz himself attended the gymnasium, located in the same building, from 1893 to 1901. During the February events of 1948, communist leader Klement Gottwald addressed the people from the balcony of the palace.
Since 1949, the building has been used as an exhibition hall of the National Gallery, and in 1962 it was included in the List of National Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic.
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An excerpt characterizing the Kinski Palace
Brought to your window.I quietly took you by the shoulders,
And he said, not hiding his smile:
“So it was not in vain that I waited for this meeting,
My beloved star...
Mom was completely captivated by dad's poems... And he wrote them to her a lot and brought them to her work every day along with huge posters drawn by his own hand (dad was a great drawer), which he unrolled right on her desktop, and on which , among all kinds of painted flowers, it was written in large letters: “Annushka, my star, I love you!” Naturally, what woman could withstand this for a long time and not give up?.. They never parted again... Using every free minute to spend it together, as if someone could take it away from them. Together they went to the movies, to dances (which they both loved very much), walked in the charming Alytus city park, until one fine day they decided that enough dates were enough and that it was time to look at life a little more seriously. Soon they got married. But only my father’s friend (my mother’s younger brother) Jonas knew about this, since this union did not cause much delight on either my mother’s or my father’s side of the family... My mother’s parents predicted for her a rich neighbor-teacher, whom they really liked, as her groom and, in their opinion, he “suited” his mother perfectly, and in his father’s family at that time there was no time for marriage, since grandfather was sent to prison at that time as an “accomplice of the nobles” (by which, they probably tried to “break” the stubbornly resisting dad), and my grandmother ended up in the hospital from a nervous shock and was very sick. Dad was left with his little brother in his arms and now had to run the entire household alone, which was very difficult, since the Seryogins at that time lived in a large two-story house (in which I later lived), with a huge old garden around. And, naturally, such a farm required good care...
So three long months passed, and my dad and mom, already married, were still going on dates, until my mom accidentally went to my dad’s house one day and found a very touching picture there... Dad stood in the kitchen in front of the stove, looking unhappy “replenishing” the hopelessly growing number of pots of semolina porridge, which at that moment he was cooking for his little brother. But for some reason the “evil” porridge became more and more, and poor dad could not understand what was happening... Mom, trying with all her might to hide a smile so as not to offend the unlucky “cook,” immediately rolled up her sleeves began to put this whole “stagnant household mess” in order, starting with the completely occupied, “porridge-filled” pots, the indignantly sizzling stove... Of course, after such an “emergency”, my mother could no longer calmly observe such a “heart-tugging” male helplessness, and decided to immediately move to this territory, which was still completely foreign and unfamiliar to her... And although it was not very easy for her at that time either - she worked at the post office (to support herself), and in the evenings she went to preparatory classes classes for medical school exams.
She, without hesitation, gave all her remaining strength to her exhausted young husband and his family. The house immediately came to life. The kitchen smelled overwhelmingly of delicious Lithuanian zeppelins, which my dad’s little brother adored and, just like dad, who had been sitting on dry food for a long time, he literally gorged himself on them to the “unreasonable” limit. Everything became more or less normal, except for the absence of my grandparents, about whom my poor dad was very worried, and sincerely missed them all this time. But now he already had a young, beautiful wife, who, as best she could, tried in every possible way to brighten up his temporary loss, and looking at my father’s smiling face, it was clear that she succeeded quite well. Dad’s little brother very soon got used to his new aunt and followed her tail, hoping to get something tasty or at least a beautiful “evening fairy tale”, which his mother read to him in great abundance before bed.
On which the majestic flaunts Golts-Kinsky Palace.
For a long time, two small ones were located on this site, but in 1755 Count Jan Arnost Goltz wanted to see a palace worthy of it on the square. According to his plan, the building should have stood out somewhat from the Old Town Square. To this day, it does not stand on the same line with all the neighboring buildings, but moves forward a little. Rumor has it that the municipality did not want to allow such a location for the palace. But the owner of the castle was stubborn: having learned which of the council members was especially greedy for money, he bribed them and finally received the desired permission. Of course, towards the end of construction, other members of the city council noticed that the palace was not located as they would have liked, but it was too late: no one would allow the palace to be almost completed. The disgruntled council sued the count, but the count, of course, was acquitted, because he had official permission from those council members whom he managed to bribe. These greedy people were hanged right in front of the palace when the construction was already completed.
...However, this is all just a legend. In fact, everything was much more prosaic. The architect simply tried to follow the layout of the buildings that previously stood on the square.
In ten years, a building with a beautiful facade was erected, which was covered with delicate light pink plaster. Later, the palace buildings were rebuilt in the Rococo style; the palace was equipped with two entrances, each of which was framed by two columns. When Count Goltz died, members of the Kinski family bought the extraordinary palace. They settled in the building and lived there until 1945. In the palace, the family maintained a valuable family library. Now he uses the palace buildings, displaying exhibits of his collections there and holding exhibitions.
The palace boasts connections with many important and quite famous people. For example, Baroness Bertha von Suttner, an Austrian writer and the first Nobel Prize laureate in 1905, was born in the Goltz-Kinski Palace. This happened in 1843.
Another well-known personality, the philosopher Franz Kafka, studied at a German high school located in the palace. And on the ground floor of the same palace, his father ran a small kiosk.
On February 25, 1948, the most important words of Klement Gottwald, the leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, were spoken from the balcony of the Goltz-Kinski Palace. He informed a huge crowd of people about the beginning of the communist era. 42 years later on the same day, another ruler - President Vaclav Havel - proudly addressed the people, announcing to them that this era was forever over.
