Schönborn Palace (Prague)

Schönborn Palace

The Palais Schönborn (Czech Schönbornský palác ) is a representative Baroque palace on the Lesser side .

history

Garden pavilion

The Schönborn Palace stands between historic town houses and was built between 1643 and 1656 on behalf of Rudolf Hieronymus Eusebius von Colloredo-Waldsee , Austrian field marshal, governor of Prague and grand prior of the Order of Malta, and received its high baroque appearance around 1715 based on plans by Giovanni Battista Alliprandi and Johann Blasius Santini-Aichl .

The palace consists of over 100 rooms in four wings that enclose three courtyards. The central courtyard is adorned by two gigantic atlases by the sculptor Matthias Bernard Braun . It remained in the possession of the Colloredo family for a long time and was famous for its early baroque garden. Among other things, the palace passed to the noble family Hatzfeld and finally in 1794 to the noble family Schönborn .

At the beginning of 1917 Franz Kafka lived here in two damp and musty rooms, without a kitchen and with poor heating.

In 1919, Count Karl Johann Schönborn (1890–1952), great-nephew of Cardinal Franziskus Schönborn from Prague and grandfather of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn from Vienna , sold the palace for $ 117,000 to Richard Teller Crane II. From 1919 to 1921, Richard Teller Crane II was the first US ambassador to Czechoslovakia . Richard Teller Crane II sold the palace to the United States Government in 1924 for $ 125,000 . The Schönborn-Palais is still the seat of the Embassy of the United States in the Czech Republic . Viewing is not possible.