Pálffy Palace, Baroque palace in Old Town, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Pálffy Palace is a Baroque building on Ventúrska Street, built in 1747 for Count Leopold Pálffy. Its portal carries a relief depicting the count's career as a general in Empress Maria Theresa's army. Inside are two arcaded courtyards and a grand staircase of hard Kaiserstein from the imperial quarry near Vienna. The palace is not open to the public.
Count Leopold Pálffy built the palace in 1747; its portal relief depicts his career as a general in Empress Maria Theresa's army. A mint operated in the building at one time. In 1762 the six-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is said to have played a concert here, though historians dispute this. From 1993 to 2012 it housed the Austrian embassy.
The palace's name recalls the Pálffy family, whose most famous member, Count Leopold Pálffy, built it in 1747. A relief on the portal depicts his military career as a general in Empress Maria Theresa's army. The building later housed a mint, and from 1993 to 2012 it served as the Austrian embassy.
The palace is not open to the public, so there is no interior to visit; the portal and facade on Ventúrska Street can be seen from the street at any time. The street itself is a pedestrian zone in the Old Town, a short walk from Hlavné námestie. Do not confuse it with the other Pálffy Palace on Panská Street.
Excavations below the palace uncovered remnants of an earlier Gothic structure, revealing layers of different historical periods built one on top of another. Archaeological finds such as Roman and Celtic artifacts in the basement show that this site has been inhabited for over a thousand years.
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