Czernin Palace (Cerninsky palac)

The Czernin Palace is the largest of the baroque palaces of Prague, which has served as the offices of the Czechoslovak and later Czech foreign ministry since the 1930s. It was commissioned by the diplomat Humprecht Jan Černín z Chudenic, the Habsburg imperial ambassador to Venice and Rome, in the 1660s.

In 1666, Humprecht Jan Černín purchased a part of the debt loaded property of the House of Lobkowicz, including a building plot with gardens located in the centre of Prague. In 1668, he commissioned Francesco Caratti, a Swiss-Italian architect, and assigned him to develop the project of his new palace on the site. The next year, building contractors Gione Decapaoli and Abraham Leuthner started construction. The plasterers Giovanni Maderna and Giovanni Battista Cometa were replaced by Francesco Peri and Antonio Travelli in 1674.

Photo 331, Sept 2008