Wimmerův palác

Wimmerův Palace is a Classicist-era palace on Rytířská street in Prague's Old Town, a short walk from St. Havel's Square. Also known as the House at the Golden Wheel (Dům U Zlatého kola), it has been listed as a Czech cultural monument since 1964.

Where exactly is the palace located?

The building stands at Rytířská 402/18, Prague 1 – Staré Město, right next to Palác Hrobčických. Despite sharing a wall, the two are separate buildings with distinct ownership histories and renovation timelines. The coordinates place it right in the middle of Prague's historic Old Town shopping district, among burgher houses whose plots date back to the Middle Ages.

What are the oldest parts of the building?

The site's history reaches back to the founding of the so-called Havel Town in 1232. The basement still contains the structure of an early medieval residential tower built shortly after that founding, making it one of the oldest surviving fragments of construction on this stretch of Rytířská street.

How did the palace get its name?

In 1779 the house then known as U Zlatého kola was bought by Jakub Wimmer, a name the palace has carried ever since. Shortly after the purchase, Wimmer commissioned an early Classicist reconstruction that produced the building's current street-facing facade. That facade's design is sometimes attributed to Ignác Jan Nepomuk Palliardi, one of the leading architects working in the Classicist style in Prague around the turn of the 19th century.

What changed in the 19th century?

The rear wing of the complex was reworked in 1826 under architect Karel Pollak. That intervention gave the property much of the layout it still has today, pairing a representative street-facing front with a more utilitarian courtyard wing behind it.

What is the palace's condition today?

The building's recent history is less fortunate. Unauthorized construction work carried out in 2004–2005 caused serious damage to the interiors, and the palace has stood empty and unused ever since. Its protected-monument status has not been enough to stop the deterioration, and today the building serves no public or commercial function — it is not open to visitors.

Frequently asked questions

Can visitors tour Wimmerův Palace? No. The building has been empty since it was damaged by unauthorized works in 2004–2005, and it has no visitor or exhibition program.

Where does the name come from? From Jakub Wimmer, who bought the house U Zlatého kola in 1779 and had it rebuilt in the early Classicist style.

Is it the same building as Palác Hrobčických? No — they are adjacent but separate buildings, each with its own history of ownership and reconstruction.

How old is the building? Its oldest surviving element, a residential tower in the basement, dates to shortly after the 1232 founding of Havel Town, though the palace's present form is the result of 18th- and 19th-century rebuilding.