Sternberg Palace, Baroque palace at Hradčanské Square, Prague, Czech Republic

Sternberg Palace is a Baroque building at Hradcany Square composed of four wings arranged around a central courtyard. The structure features a curved front section that projects outward into the western garden area.

Count Václav Vojtěch of Šternberk bought the neighbouring Saxe-Lauenburg palace in 1697 and began a new palace here in 1698, finished by 1707. It replaced a Renaissance Lobkowicz house where Kryštof Popel of Lobkowicz had lived. In 1811 the Society of Patriotic Friends of Art bought it and added the south wing in late Neoclassical style by Jan Novotný between 1835 and 1842.

The palace is named after the Šternberk family, who acquired it in 1690; Count Václav Vojtěch of Šternberk bought the neighbouring Saxon-Lauenburg palace in 1697 and had the present building begun in 1698. From 1871 the Association of Ladies and Girls of St Anne ran a home for people with mental disabilities here, called Ernestinum after its patroness Ernestine, Princess of Auersperg. Since 1947 the building has belonged to the National Gallery, which displays its collection of European painting.

The palace is open to visitors most days of the week and can be explored at a leisurely pace in about an hour or two. Comfortable walking shoes are recommended since you will move between different rooms and across courtyard areas.

The garden holds a granite pond with an over-life-size statue of a stork by Jan Lauda, plus sculptures by Jan Štursa, Břetislav Benda, Vincenc Makovský and Josef Kaplický. Art historian Anna Masaryková, granddaughter of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, worked at the gallery and, by oral account, planted rhododendrons here after 1947.