Troja Palace ( cs, Zámek Troja) is a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

palace located in Troja,

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

's north-west borough (

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

). It was built for the Counts of Sternberg from 1679 to 1691. The palace is owned by the city of Prague and hosts the 19th century Czech art collections of the City Gallery.

Construction

The palace's design has been influenced by

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and

Italian architecture Italy has a very broad and diverse architectural style, which cannot be simply classified by period or region, due to Italy's division into various small states until 1861. This has created a highly diverse and eclectic range in architectural des ...

and is mostly the work of French architect

Jean Baptiste Mathey Jean Baptiste Mathey (1630–1696) was a French architect and painter born in Dijon. Between 1675 and 1694 Mathey enjoyed a remarkable career in which his French planning and devotion to classical rationality (as opposed to the luxuriance of I ...

. The latter also built the palais Buquoy in Prague, currently the French embassy. Prior to Mathey, Domenico Orsi worked on the castle. Silvestro Carlone was the

Master Builder A master builder or master mason is a central figure leading construction projects in pre-modern times (a precursor to the modern architect and engineer). Historically, the term has generally referred to "the head of a construction project in the ...

Gardens

The stairs between the palace and the gardens are the work of two sculptors from Dresden:

Johann Georg The German given name Johann Georg, or its variant spellings, may refer to: John George *John George, Elector of Brandenburg (1525–1598) *John George I, Elector of Saxony (1585–1656) *John George II, Elector of Saxony (1613–1680) *John Geor ...

and Paul Heermann. They sculpted statues representing the fight of gods and giants. The

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk a ...

is decorated with a rare collection of vases made by Bombelli, also active in

Slavkov u Brna Slavkov u Brna (; historically known in German as Austerlitz) is a town in Vyškov District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,000 inhabitants. The town gave its name to the Battle of Austerlitz which took place seve ...

, at Slavkov-Austerlitz castle (close to Brno). The central axis of the garden projects towards the spires of the St. Vitus Cathedral in the Prague Castle.

Decoration

Abraham Godijn and Isaac Godijn - Fresco in the Hall of Honor in the Troja Palace - Janus temple

The palace's main room is decorated with a magnificent baroque ''Habsburg's apotheosis''. Many mythological elements are presented in this

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

decoration. It was realised by the brothers

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jew ...

and Izaak Godijn, painters from Antwerp who commenced their work at the castle in 1690. The paintings are considered to be among the best examples of Baroque fresco painting in Northern Europe. The fresco's use illusionist effects and narrate in a triumphalist way the history of the

Habsburg Dynasty The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

. The design follows the Baroque schema of architectural symbolism whereby the ceiling depicts the celestial world and the walls the terrestrial world. The ceiling is decorated with celestial beings that were said to protect the Habsburg territories. Underneath the curved surfaces below the ceiling, angels and ''

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...

'' are floating before

architecture showing scenes from Habsburg history. The walls depict the terrestrial world with one of the scenes on the shorter walls celebrating the victory of

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Franz Felician; hu, I. Lipót; 9 June 1640 – 5 May 1705) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria An ...

over the Turks. In one scene we see the

effect of a Turk falling down with his arms outstretched while his shadow is reflected on the painting (see illustration). The longer wall holds statues or busts of the Habsburg rulers in ''

grisaille Grisaille ( or ; french: grisaille, lit=greyed , from ''gris'' 'grey') is a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many g ...

''. The fresco programme achieved a sophisticated and complex synthesis of fictionalist painting of architecture and lively figural scenes.Mojmír Horyna, Pavel Zahradník, Pavel Preiss, ''Czernin Palace in Prague'', Opus, 2001, p. 149 Francesco Marchetti and his son Giovanni realised most of the other paintings in the castle.

Recent history

The palace was bought in 1922 by the

Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) **Fourth Czechoslovak Repub ...

state, which started a restoration in the seventies. Since this period the palace has been hosting an exhibition of Czech paintings of the 19th century:

Josef Čermák Josef may refer to *Josef (given name) *Josef (surname) * ''Josef'' (film), a 2011 Croatian war film *Musik Josef Musik Josef is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded by Yukio Nakamura, and is the only company in Japan spe ...

Václav Brožík Václav Brožík (french: Vaclav de Brozik ; 6 March 1851, Třemošná – 15 April 1901 Paris) was a Czech painter who worked in the academic style. Life He came from a poor family, studying lithography and porcelain painting through appre ...

Julius Mařák Julius Eduard Mařák (29 March 1832, Litomyšl – 8 October 1899, Prague) was a Czech landscape painter and graphic designer. Life His father was an auditor and land registrar. His first painting lessons came while he was still in the Gymnasi ...

Antonin Chittussi Antonin may refer to: People * Antonin (name) Places ;Poland * Antonin, Jarocin County, Greater Poland Voivodeship * Antonin, Kalisz County, Greater Poland Voivodeship * Antonin, Oborniki County, Greater Poland Voivodeship * Antonin, Ostr ...

Jan Preisler Jan Preisler (17 February 1872, in Králův Dvůr – 27 April 1918, in Prague) was a Czech painter and art professor. Life Jan Preisler’s family worked in the local iron foundry and he attended the nearby primary schools. From an early age, ...

Mikoláš Aleš Mikoláš Aleš (18 November 1852 – 10 July 1913) was a Czech painter. Aleš is estimated to have had over 5,000 published pictures; he painted for everything from magazines to playing cards to textbooks. His paintings were not publicized to ...

Notes

External links