Lobkowicz Palace

Prague


This 16th-century palace houses a private museum known as the Princely Collections, which includes priceless paintings, furniture and musical memorabilia. Your tour includes an audio guide narrated by the owner William Lobkowicz and his family – this personal connection really brings the displays to life, and makes the palace one of the castle’s most interesting attractions.

The palace has been home to the aristocratic Lobkowicz family for around 400 years. Confiscated by the Nazis in WWII, and again by the communists in 1948, the palace was finally returned in 2002 to William Lobkowicz, an American property developer and grandson of Maximilian, the 10th Prince Lobkowicz, who fled to the US in 1939.

Highlights of the museum include paintings by Cranach, Breughel the Elder, Canaletto and Piranesi, original musical scores annotated by Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn (the seventh prince was a great patron of music – Beethoven dedicated three symphonies to him), and an impressive collection of musical instruments. But it’s the personal touches that make an impression, such as the 16th-century portrait of a Lobkowicz ancestor wearing a ring that William’s mother still wears today, and an old photo album with a picture of a favourite family dog smoking a pipe.

The palace has an excellent cafe, and stages one-hour classical-music concerts at 1pm each day (390Kč to 490Kč).


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Prague attractions

1. Rosenberg Palace

0.03 MILES

This Renaissance palace once served as the 'Institute of Noblewomen' – effectively a home for aristocratic ladies fallen on hard times, founded by Empress…

2. Golden Lane

0.04 MILES

This picturesque alley runs along the northern wall of the castle. Its tiny, colourful cottages were built in the 16th century for the sharpshooters of…

3. Daliborka

0.04 MILES

Accessed from Zlatá ulička, this tower is named after the knight Dalibor of Kozojedy, incarcerated here in 1498 for supporting a peasant rebellion, and…

4. Palace Gardens Beneath Prague Castle

0.08 MILES

The beautiful, terraced gardens on the steep southern slopes below the castle date from the 17th and 18th centuries, when they were created for the owners…

5. Wallenstein Palace

0.1 MILES

Valdštejnské náměstí, a small square northeast of Malostranské náměstí, is dominated by the monumental 1630 palace of Albrecht of Wallenstein, general of…

6. Basilica of St George

0.12 MILES

The striking, brick-red, early baroque facade that dominates St George Square conceals the Czech Republic’s best-preserved Romanesque church, established…

7. Summer Palace

0.14 MILES

Built between 1538 and 1560, and also known as the Belvedere, this is perhaps the most authentic Italian Renaissance building outside Italy. Find it in…

8. Prague Castle

0.14 MILES

Prague’s most popular attraction. Looming above the Vltava's left bank, its serried ranks of spires, towers and palaces dominate the city centre like a…