Sternberg Palace – National Gallery Prague

Sternberg Palace is a Baroque building located in Prague, Czech Republic, which currently functions as a gallery for the National Gallery Prague and is recognized as a cultural monument.

The Sternberg Palace was built after 1698 for Václav Vojtěch of Šternberk, after whom it is named. The site previously held two Gothic houses from the mid-1300s.

The architect of Sternberg Palace is unknown, with the most commonly named individuals being Giovanni Battista Alliprandi, Domenico Martinelli, and Jan Santini Aichel, though Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Christoph Dientzenhofer are also occasionally speculated.

The southern wing of the Sternberg Palace remained unfinished after its initial construction. It was fully completed between 1835 and 1842 by Jan Novotný.

In the early 1880s, the Society of Patriotic Friends of Art, an aristocratic Czech association, purchased the palace after being evicted from Czernin Palace, which was requisitioned as a military hospital.

From 1821 to 1847, a section of the Sternberg Palace was lent to the Bohemian National Museum by the Society of Patriotic Friends of Art to house its collections.

The palace served as a workplace for prominent Czech figures in science and humanities, including Pavel Josef Šafařík, Carl Borivoj Presl, Václav Hanka, and Antonín Mánes, during its ownership by the Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts.

The Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts sold the Sternberg Palace in 1871 and moved to the mansion of Joseph Porges von Portheim.

In 1872, the Saint Anna Association of Ladies and Girls founded the Ernestinum, a shelter for the mentally disabled, within the palace. They relocated out of Prague in 1918.

Following the relocation of the Ernestinum shelter in 1918, the Sternberg Palace was used as a military school until 1945.

Between 1946 and 1947, the building underwent renovation and was subsequently established as the seat of the National Gallery Prague.

In early 1991, the Sternberg Palace experienced a significant art theft where four paintings by Pablo Picasso were stolen by individuals released in the Václav Havel amnesty, though they were later recovered.

Following government restitution of seized properties, concerns arose that the Sternberg Palace, previously owned by the Saint Anna Association of Ladies and Girls, might be restituted. However, it was confirmed that properties owned by the National Gallery were excluded from this return.

The palace was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which repairs were planned but unsuccessful. It reopened in late 2020 with a new permanent exhibition.

Sternberg Palace was designed in Renaissance and Baroque styles, creating a contrast with the older Gothic buildings it replaced. It features two stories, four wings around a central courtyard, and a facade split into two sections due to the original Gothic structures.

The garden outside the west wing, featuring a pond and sculptures, was given its modern form during the palace's transfer to the National Gallery in 1947. It was reportedly maintained by Anna Masaryková in the early years of ownership.