Furstenberg Palace, Renaissance palace in Mala Strana, Czech Republic.
Furstenberg Palace is a three-wing, two-storey building at Valdštejnská 153/8, with a lower connecting gallery closing the courtyard on the south. Its west wing holds a two-storey hall under a ceiling fresco by an unknown painter; the street portal and staircase date to around 1714.
The plot was bought in 1580 by imperial councillor Václav Berka of Dubá and Lipé, who added vineyards on the castle slope in 1583; the palace reached roughly its present extent by 1600. In the mid-18th century Václav Kazimír Netolický of Eisenberk gave it its current three-wing, two-storey form, with a lower connecting gallery closing the courtyard. In 1822 the neglected property passed to Prince Karel Egon of Fürstenberg, after whom it is named.
The palace has housed the Polish Embassy since 1922, when the Czechoslovak state leased it to Poland. The name comes from Prince Karel Egon of Fürstenberg, who bought the neglected property in 1822 and kept his collections and books here. The embassy offices are closed to the public, but the terraced part of the palace garden has been open since 2008.
The embassy offices at Valdštejnská 153/8 are not open to the public, but since 2008 the terraced section of the palace garden has been accessible. The garden lies behind the palace, off the street front.
The palace is named after Prince Karl Egon von Fürstenberg, who acquired the neglected property in 1822 and kept his rare collections and books here. He also founded ironworks and smelters in the Czech lands and stored iron goods from his Nižbor works in the palace cellar; the stored steel damaged the garden, which had to be restored at the end of the 19th century.
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