When you walk along Husova Street in the Old Town, you can’t miss a building with an eye-catching portal decorated with four huge statues of Hercules. They guard one of the most beautiful Late Baroque palaces in Prague, and you’ll get an idea of the building’s splendour as soon as you step into the staircase hall at the entrance. Viennese architect Jan Bernard Fischer von Erlach designed the present appearance of the Clam-Gallas Palace. The workshop of Matthias Bernhard Braun produced the sculptural decoration, including the facade, staircase and Neptune fountain. The extraordinary quality of the decoration is in keeping with the spirit of ancient mythology.
They say that Count Clam-Gallas was a great lover of nightlife and built the palace for holding regular balls, concerts and boisterous parties. At one such event it is said Mozart and Casanova had met.
The renovation, which was completed in 2022, mainly involved repairing the basement and renovating the ground floor, which included opening shops, a café, a ticket office, a cloakroom and toilets. The main aim of the revitalisation was to make the palace accessible to the public, while preserving as much as possible of its original features. The palace now has a new façade and some of the floors, interior paintings, wall decorations and other features have been restored.
The current itinerary allows visitors to appreciate the palace's unique structure and remarkable decoration, while discovering the subsequent modifications made to the interiors to ensure the comfort of the noble family who lived there.
