Lobkowicz Palace

Lobkowicz Palace stands inside the walls of Prague Castle, yet unlike everything else on the castle grounds, it is not state property. It is the only privately owned building within the complex, and today it houses the Lobkowicz Museum, home to one of Europe's oldest and finest private art collections.

Where inside the castle complex is it?

The palace sits within the Prague Castle grounds, close to St. Vitus Cathedral and the other castle buildings. What sets it apart is ownership: while the rest of the castle belongs to the Czech state, this single building remains in private hands.

Who built it, and how did it change hands?

Construction began in the second half of the 16th century, commissioned by the Czech nobleman Jaroslav of Pernštejn. His brother, Vratislav II of Pernštejn, who served as Chancellor of the Kingdom of Bohemia, completed the building. The Lobkowicz family, whose name the palace still carries, acquired it only later.

The 20th century brought repeated upheaval. In 1939, invading Nazi forces confiscated the palace along with the rest of the family's property. It was returned in 1945, only to be seized again in 1948 after the Communist takeover. For the following four decades it served state purposes, including a period as a museum of Czech history.

How did the palace return to the Lobkowicz family?

The turning point came after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. President Václav Havel's government passed restitution laws allowing former owners to reclaim confiscated property. Reclaiming the palace took the Lobkowicz family twelve years of legal process, concluding in 2002. After further years of restoration, the building opened to the public in April 2007 as the Lobkowicz Palace Museum.

What does the museum show visitors?

Visits are self-guided with an audio tour that follows Bohemian and European history through the lens of a single aristocratic family across several centuries.

Paintings and decorative arts

The collection includes roughly 1,500 paintings, among them works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Canaletto, alongside pieces by Velázquez, Veronese, Rubens, Bernardo Bellotto, and Lucas Cranach. Portraits linked to Hans von Aachen and the Prague court school also feature prominently, and the collection's Spanish Renaissance portraits are considered among the finest held outside Madrid and Vienna. Arms and armor are on display too, along with the largest surviving Delft dinner service in the world, made around 1685.

Musical manuscripts

A separate strand of the collection covers musical instruments, manuscripts, and printed scores and librettos from the 17th to 19th centuries. Highlights include material connected to Mozart, notably his reorchestration of Handel's Messiah, as well as manuscripts of Beethoven symphonies, including the Third (Eroica), Fourth, and Fifth.

Frequently asked questions

Is Lobkowicz Palace state-owned, like the rest of Prague Castle? No — it is the only building on the castle grounds that remains privately owned, belonging to the Lobkowicz family.

When did the palace open to visitors? The museum opened to the public in April 2007, following the family's restitution of the property and a subsequent restoration.

What are the highlights of the collection? Paintings by Bruegel and Canaletto, a notable group of Spanish Renaissance portraits, and musical manuscripts connected to Mozart and Beethoven.

Since when has the palace belonged to the Lobkowicz family again? The family regained ownership in 2002, after a twelve-year restitution process that began following the fall of Communism in 1989.