The British Embassy in the Czech Republic (Prague) - Diplomatic Missions on Waymarking.com

The long history of the Thun Palace goes back to medieval times and there are Gothic traces in the cellars and foundations of the building. The first written record of a building at this place is from the middle of the 14th Century. Since then, the location has marked some of the great events in Czech history. There are records that a house here was burnt during the Hussite wars, along with much of Malá Strana. Rudolf II bequeathed a rebuilt house to one of his faithful servants, and the house was subsequently traded by winners and losers during the catastrophic upheavals of the Thirty Years War.

It was one of the assassins of the great general of the Thirty Years War, Albrecht of Wallenstein (Valdštejn), the Scottish adventurer Count Leslie, who sold it to the Thun family in 1656, after whom the building is now named and who owned it for 269 years. Originally from the South Tyrol, the Thuns became embroiled in the thirty Years War, and, being on the winning side, profited greatly from them. The Thuns owned several palaces in Prague and contributed to the widespread building activity in Prague at that time which produced much of the Baroque grandeur that survives to the present day, including in this building. It was during their time as owners that the palace had one of its most famous guests when Mozart stayed at the house, as a guest of Count Jan Josef Thun, as proved by a letter he wrote from this address in 1787. The building witnessed more dramatic historical events when Count Josef Thun, Governor of Prague, struggled to keep order during the 1848 uprising.

In 1919, when Britain established relations with the new Republic of Czechoslovakia, the British leased the Thun Palace as a Residence for the Minister and the Legation offices. It has been the Legation, and then the Embassy, ever since and in 1925 the British Government bought it. The first Czechoslovak President, Tomáš Masaryk, was a frequent visitor and according to some sources, Masaryk used to come from the Castle through the Embassy garden. Over the years many internal changes to the building have been made to provide more working office space. But the main architectural features, artwork and great treasures of history remain and the building and garden continue to be amongst the most beautiful locations in the city.