Troja Palace

Troja, Czech Republic

Troja Palace is a Baroque palace located in Troja, Prague's north-west borough. It was built for the Counts of Sternberg from 1679 to 1691. The palace is owned by the city of Prague and hosts the 19th century Czech art collections of the City Gallery.

The palace's design has been influenced by French and Italian architecture and is mostly the work of French architect Jean Baptiste Mathey. The latter also built the palais Buquoy in Prague, currently the French embassy. Prior to Mathey, Domenico Orsi worked on the castle. Silvestro Carlone was the Master Builder.

Gardens

The stairs between the palace and the gardens are the work of two sculptors from Dresden: Johann Georg and Paul Heermann. They sculpted statues representing the fight of gods and giants. The terrace is decorated with a rare collection of vases made by Bombelli, also active in Slavkov u Brna, at Slavkov-Austerlitz castle (close to Brno). The central axis of the garden projects towards the spires of the St. Vitus Cathedral in the Prague Castle.

Decoration

The palace's main room is decorated with a magnificent baroque Habsburg's apotheosis. Many mythological elements are presented in this trompe-l'œil decoration. It was realised by the brothers Abraham and Izaak Godijn, painters from Antwerp who commenced their work at the castle in 1690. The paintings are considered to be among the best examples of Baroque fresco painting in Northern Europe. The fresco's use illusionist effects and narrate in a triumphalist way the history of the Habsburg Dynasty. The design follows the Baroque schema of architectural symbolism whereby the ceiling depicts the celestial world and the walls the terrestrial world. The ceiling is decorated with celestial beings that were said to protect the Habsburg territories. Underneath the curved surfaces below the ceiling, angels and putti are floating before trompe-l'œil architecture showing scenes from Habsburg history. The walls depict the terrestrial world with one of the scenes on the shorter walls celebrating the victory of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor over the Turks. In one scene we see the trompe-l'œil effect of a Turk falling down with his arms outstretched while his shadow is reflected on the painting (see illustration). The longer wall holds statues or busts of the Habsburg rulers in grisaille. The fresco programme achieved a sophisticated and complex synthesis of fictionalist painting of architecture and lively figural scenes.

Recent history

The palace was bought in 1922 by the Czechoslovak state, which started a restoration in the seventies. Since this period the palace has been hosting an exhibition of Czech paintings of the 19th century: Josef Čermák, Václav Brožík, Julius Mařák, Antonin Chittussi, Jan Preisler, Mikoláš Aleš.

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Details

Founded: 1679-1691
Category: Palaces, manors and town halls in Czech Republic

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Алиса Фильчакова (12 months ago)
The castle is very beautiful! The courtyard area is charming! Despite my poor Czech language, some castle workers came up to me and told me its history, when i was there in summer. It was nice! But when i ran into the courtyard 20 minutes before closing to take a picture of the castle in the snow, one of the workers was rude to me that the gates were already closing and we should get out of here. Although there were still 20 minutes!
Aiden Schneider (13 months ago)
Definitely one of the most beautiful castles I have ever been to. The architecture is so beautiful and the garden is eye-catching and very calm. I loved the fact that there were very little people and the it was possible to explore everywhere without any restrictions. An underrated gem in Prague.
Adam Struharňanský (14 months ago)
Small, but really cheap (for a student). I think there are usually 2 exhibition (I was just before winter closing, so there was only one). I really enjoyed the exhibition and I like the palace, especially those wonderful wall paintings. (btw. The gardens are for free - and they are worth visiting on their own, if you do not want to go inside, although I definitely recommend visiting palace).
Kati Murphy (16 months ago)
The palace has a permanent exhibition that includes rooms and their paintings as well as sculptures. There are also temporary exhibits that are always worth peeking into. Sometimes there are events on the grounds of the palace and we were lucky enough to be there during the French food and wine festival. Very close to the zoo and botanical gardens, so well worth the trip out of the city center.
Sarka Bejckova (SharkieBe) (16 months ago)
I visited the Trojsky zamek on my walk from Bohnice to Troja. It was late afternoon and the gardens were still opened. There were almost no people so I enjoyed the beautiful calm garden, the views and also the apple trees growing there.
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