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Archbishop's Palace (Arcibiskupský palác)
Hradčanské náměstí 16 Praha 1 - Hradčany http://www.praguewelcome.cz/srv/www/en/objects/detail.x?id=52749About
Archbishop‘s Palace| The Archbishop’s Palace is located next to Prague Castle, being delimited by the Deer Moat (Jelení příkop) from the North, and on its Western side, there is a descending path through a passage in the left side along the palace leading to the entrance to the National Gallery in the Šternberk Palace. The palace was built in the 16th century and until today it has gone through many reconstructions.After 1538, Florián Gryspek of Gryspach (or also Griespek of Griesbach), the secretary of the Bohemian Chamber and a confidant of Ferdinand I, built his residence here in place of 8 burgess houses. The construction was interrupted by the Malá Strana and Hradčany fire in 1541; to complete it afterwards, the owner was allowed to use material from the imperial brick plant. In 1561, Ferdinand I bought the palace and gave it to the then Prague Archbishop Antonín Brus of Mohelnice. Thus the palace became the seat of the Prague Archiepiscopate. In 1562 - 1563, castle builder Hans Tyrol carried out a high-Renaissance reconstruction, probably according to a project of Bonifác Wohlmut. Further Renaissance constructional modifications were carried out by Ulrico Aostalli. Remains of sgraffitoes from the 16th century have been preserved in the yard until today (James’ dream - Sen Jakubův, A bear - Medvěd).In 1599, the then archbishop Zdeněk Berka of Dubá had a palace Chapel of St. John the Baptist built on the 1st floor and decorated it with wall and ceiling stuccoes and paintings by Daniel Alexius of Květná. On the vault, there are scenes from a saint’s life; the ceiling mirror is decorated by the painting of the Holy Trinity. Reliefs in the vault’s lunettes depict twenty two capitulary provosts, leading abbots and the dean of the Karlštejn Chapter, the participants of the historical congress in Trident (1605) where the decrees reforming the Catholic Church were issued. Above the entrance to the choir, there is a relief of the Crucifixion. On the sectroids, there are scenes from the Old Testament, and between their wedges, there are reliefs of angels with the tools of Christ’s Martyrdom. Stucco reliefs in the niches depict Bohemian land patrons. In the chapel’s interior, there are two relic copper gold-plated busts of St. Peter and Paul from around 1413.Radical reconstruction into an early-Baroque palace was carried out by Archbishop Jan Friedrich of Valdštejn according to a project of a French painter Jean Baptist Mathey, who became his chief architect. He left his mark above the palace’s portico - a triangle and the year 1676. The reconstruction was conducted by Francesco Lurago. The centre of the front with a portal of the Slivenec marble and a characteristic roof pavilion have been preserved since that time until today. In the years 1722 - 1725, Pavel Ignác Bayer added another tract to the Western court wing, the bishop’s office (the Consistory).When the trench between the Castle and the palace was filled up during the Theresian reconstruction, another monumental late-Baroque reconstruction of the palace took place in the years 1764 - 1765. Prague Archbishop Antonín Petr Příchovský then decided to correlate the appearance of the representative entrance of the Prague Castle Theresian Palace with the building of the Archiepiscopate, and invited one of the most significant persons of Prague building construction to cooperate - Bohemian architect Jan Josef Wirch. He, among other things, extended the palace with side wings, raised it with the 3rd floor, and at the same time moved the piano nobile from the 1st onto the 2nd floor; he sensitively decorated the front with new Rococo ornaments, and divided the courtyard via a remarkable bridge with covered corridor on arcades, the roof of which is carried by a couple of pillars. Putti with lamp-posts on the roof cornice, as well as the sculptural groups on the main staircase, the work of Ignác Frant
