Lobkowicz Palace, Renaissance palace at Prague Castle, Czech Republic.
Lobkowicz Palace is a Renaissance building within the Prague Castle complex that now serves as a private museum. Twenty-two exhibition rooms spread across several floors and display paintings, weaponry, ceramics, and musical manuscripts.
Begun before the mid-16th century by Wolf Krajíř of Krajek, the palace was continued in 1555–1562 and 1570–1576 by Jaroslav of Pernštejn and his brother Vratislav II, chancellor of the Kingdom of Bohemia. Polyxena of Pernštejn, married to Zdeněk Vojtěch of Lobkowicz, bought it in 1627 for 30,000 Rhenish guilders, and Carlo Lurago rebuilt it in Baroque form in 1651–1668. Confiscated by the Nazis in 1939 and again after 1948, it was returned to the Lobkowicz family in 2002 after a twelve-year restitution process.
The name Lobkowicz comes from a Bohemian noble family that supported artists and musicians for centuries. Visitors today walk through rooms where this devotion to collecting shows itself in paintings, instruments, and handwritten scores.
The museum opens daily and sits in the rear section of the castle grounds, reached by cobbled paths with a gentle slope. Audio guides ease the walk through the collection and come in several languages.
The Infant Jesus of Prague statue arrived at the palace with Vratislav of Pernštejn's Spanish wife, Maria Maximiliana Manrique de Lara y Mendoza. Their daughter Polyxena later gave it to the Church of Our Lady Victorious; a replica is on display in the museum.
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