Archbishop's Palace, Prague

The palace is arranged as a multi‑wing complex whose present form grew from a three‑wing Baroque house that received a fourth wing in the 1720s. The complex retains a layered construction, with medieval Gothic masonry incorporated into later walls, and facades and interiors that largely reflect the mid‑18th‑century Rococo reworking.

A chapel added in 1599 occupies the south‑eastern corner of the palace. Its wall paintings portray episodes from the life of John the Baptist, while the ceiling over the presbytery shows the Holy Trinity. The chapel’s entrance is framed in Sliven marble and displays the emblem of Archbishop Zbyněk Berka of Dubá and Lipá. The chapel was solemnly consecrated on 29 August 1599 and recorded as reconsecrated in 1888.

Sections of the exterior still show Renaissance sgraffito decoration with plant and animal motifs. On the eastern side of the west wing, facing the first courtyard, two painted scenes survive: one showing Jacob’s dream and another in which a bear eats a wolf, images that have been read as symbolic. Additional stretches of the original envelope sgraffito appear on inner walls where the later facades no longer cover them.

Structural traces of an older Gothic house remain built into the palace fabric; these medieval walls stand within later elevations and form part of the building’s underlying skeleton. The main front includes a central marble balcony executed in Sliven stone that dates to the post‑Renaissance reconstruction, and the grand portal in the middle wing originates with the Baroque rebuilding though its sculptural groups were replaced in 1889. The stair leading to the principal floor retains statues of light‑bearers by an 18th‑century sculptor.

The principal floor, the piano nobile (principal floor), contains the representative reception rooms. Lateral projections contain oval‑plan rooms that serve as appendages to these state chambers; the eastern oval room is lined with restored silk wallpaper showing plant and bird patterns, while the western oval uses restored velvet wall coverings. The movable and pictorial holdings include two overgilded Gothic busts of Saint Peter and Saint Paul dated to about 1413, four canvases by Petr Brandl depicting Fathers of the Church, and a set of mid‑18th‑century tapestries produced in Parisian workshops. These works remain within the palace interiors alongside the historic fittings.