Martinický palác / Martinic Palace (Prague - Hradcany) - Renaissance Architecture on Waymarking.com

The Martinic Palace (Martinický palác), built in the 16th century, is one of the most beautiful Renaissance buildings in Prague.

At the site of the Palace were in the second half of the 14th century 4 Gothic burgher houses. These four houses were damaged by the big fire in 1541 which started on the Prague's Lesser town and destroyed also majority of the Hradcany district. About 10 years after Ondrej Teuffel of Zeulberg bought the remaining ruins and started to build his representative palace here. He sold the house to Jiri Borita of Martinic in 1583.

The new owner started to rebuild and enlarge the palace, but the work was discontinued by dramatic events in 1618: the Czech Protestant noblemen rebelled against Emperor Matthias, who had violated their religious freedom. Noblemen came to the Prague Castle to the office of imperial vice-regents. Jaroslav Borita of Martinic, owner of the palace, was a vice-regent at the time. The angry noblemen threw the vice-regents and their clerk out of the window. This event is known as "the second Prague defenestration" and it started the Thirty Years´War.

Suprisingly, the vice-regents were not injured, but they had to run away from the country for some time. The Martinic Palace was finished in early-Baroque style later. The palace was built as a half-sized replica of the Royal Palace at the Prague Castle, because Count Martinic wanted a palace, symbolizing his political power. Martinic Palace is decorated with numerous figural sgraffitoes, depicting scenes from life of Joseph in Egypt, King David and Hercules. Many fresco paintings adorn the Martinic Palace, for example the above-lifesized figures of Adam and Eve, painted according to the artwork by A. Dürer.