Page 119 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Prague

PR A GUE C ASTLE AND HR ADČ AN Y  117

p Černín Palace In 1948, Jan Masaryk, the son of
and Garden Czechoslovakia’s first president,
Černínský Palác a Zahrada was found dead in his pyjamas
below his bathroom window
Loretánské náměstí 5. Map 1 B3. at the age of 61. It is widely
v 22, 25. Palace: Closed to the believed he was murdered by
public. Garden: Open May–Oct: the new communist regime.
10am–5pm daily. 7 ∑ mzv.cz
Constructed in 1668 for Count a Pohořelec
Černín of Chudenice, the
Imperial Ambassador to Venice, Map 1 B3. v 22, 25.
Prague’s Černín Palace is
arguably the Italian architect First settled in 1375, this is one
Francesco Caratti’s masterpiece. of the oldest parts of Prague.
It is 150 m (500 ft) long with a The name is of more recent
row of 30 massive Corinthian origin: Pohořelec means “place
half­columns running the destroyed by fire”, a fate the
length of its upper storeys. area has suffered three times in
The palace towers over the the course of its history – the
The ornate altar, Church of Our Lady Queen attractive, small, grassy last time being in 1741. It is now
of Angels in the Capuchin Monastery square that lies between a large open square on a hill
it and the Loreto. high over the city and part of
somehow found its way back The huge building the main access route to Prague
to the church. Three times suffered as a result Castle. In the
Rudolph had the Madonna of its prominent centre stands
brought back, but each time position on one of a large monu­
she returned to her original Prague’s highest ment to St John
position. The Emperor even­ hills. It was looted Nepomuk (1752)
tually gave up, left her where by the French in (see p137), thought
she was and presented her 1742 and badly to be by Johann
with a gold crown and a robe. damaged in the Anton Quitainer.
Each year, at Christmas, crowds Prussian bombardment The houses around
of visitors come to see the of the city in 1757. In Capital on the square are mainly
church’s Baroque nativity scene 1851, the impov erished Černín Palace Baroque and Rococo.
of life­sized figures dressed in Černín family sold the In front of the Jan Kepler
period costumes. palace to the state and it grammar school stands a
became a barracks. After the monument to Kepler and his
o The Loreto creation of Czecho slovakia in predecessor as astronomer at
1918, the palace was restored to
the court of Rudolph II, Tycho
Loreta its original design and became Brahe, who died in a house
See pp118–19. the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. on the school site in 1601.

Černín Palace, with its Corinthian half-columns

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