Page 679 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

PR A GUE  677

well-known writers, including
Franz Kafka (1883–1924), who
stayed at No. 22 for a few months
between 1916 and 1917.
6 Royal Garden
and Belvedere
Prague Castle, Královský Letohrádek.
q Hradčanská, Malostranská. v 22.
Garden: Open May–Oct: daily. 7
Belvedere: Open only for exhibitions.
& 7 ∑ hrad.cz
Prague’s well-kept Royal Garden
was created in 1535 for Artisans’ cottages on Golden Lane, Prague Castle
Ferdinand I. The garden contains
some fine examples of 16th- 7 Sternberg Palace centuries, Dutch and Flemish
century architecture, including Hradčanské náměstí 15. Tel 23 30 90 masterpieces, and Austrian
the Belvedere, a beautiful 570. q Hradčanská, Malostranská. and German art of the 15th to
arcaded summerhouse with v 22 to Brusnice or Prague Castle. 17th centuries. The 19th- and
slender Ionic columns and a Open Tue–Sun. & 8 - 20th-century exhibits, including
blue-green copper roof. Also ∑ ngprague.cz works by Klimt, Picasso, and
known as the Royal Summer Miró, were moved to the
Palace (Královský letohrádek), Franz Josef Sternberg founded Veletržní Palace, northeast
the Italian Renaissance building the Society of Patriotic Friends of the city center, in 1996.
was commissioned in the mid- of the Arts in Bohemia in 1796. The palace boasts many
16th century for Ferdinand’s Fellow noblemen would masterpieces; among the
wife. It is now used as an art lend their finest pictures highlights are Albrecht Dürer’s
gallery. In front of it is the and sculpture to the society, The Feast of the Rosary (1506),
Singing Fountain, which owes which had its headquarters Head of Christ, painted by
its name to the musical sound in the early 18th-century El Greco in the 1590s, and
the water makes as it hits the Sternberg Palace. Since 1949, Rembrandt’s Scholar in his
bronze bowl. the fine Baroque building Study (1634).
Also in the garden is the Ball has been used to house the Visitors can also see art
Game Hall (Míčovna), built in National Gallery’s collection from ancient Greece and Rome,
1569, and used primarily for of European art. a collection of Renaissance
playing a form of real tennis. The palace has an impressive bronzes, as well as the
At the entrance to the garden, array of exhibits, including some fascinating Chinese Cabinet,
the Lion Court was where particularly fine examples of a richly decorated chamber,
Rudolph II had his zoo (now Italian medieval art, Neapolitan which combines the Baroque
a restaurant). works of the 17th and 18th style with Far Eastern motifs.

The Belvedere, Emperor Ferdinand I’s summer palace in the Royal Garden beside Prague Castle

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