After a four-year renovation, the Schwarzenberg Palace will open

Prague - After a four-year reconstruction, the Schwarzenberg Palace in Hradčany, Prague will open in a trial operation at the end of this summer. The National Gallery in Prague (NG) is preparing its new permanent exhibition of Baroque art there. It is expected to be accessible from December. This was announced by NG spokesperson Petra Jungwirthová.
Next week, journalists will be able to tour the Renaissance palace, and as part of regular free admission days, the gallery will welcome its first visitors in trial operation on July 12 from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM. By the end of summer, trial operations should begin, but in a regular manner.
One of the largest Renaissance buildings in Prague has been serving exhibition activities since 1910 when the then Technical Museum placed its collections there. In the second half of the 20th century, there was an exhibition of the Military History Museum in the palace, and the NG acquired the building in 2002.
Since July 2003, it has been under reconstruction, and later it also acquired the adjacent Salmovský Palace. There, art from the 19th century, especially its first half, is to be exhibited in connection with the neighboring building. The collections of Rudolfine and Baroque art, currently housed at Jiřský Monastery, will be installed in the Schwarzenberg Palace.
According to earlier estimates, the reconstruction of both palaces should cost around 500 million crowns.
Although the gallery is seemingly expanding spatially, in 2008 it will leave the chateau in Zbraslav, where the collection of Oriental art is located. The operation of Zbraslav Chateau costs the NG 3.5 million crowns annually. This amount corresponds approximately to what the operation of Salmovský Palace will consume in the future.
The gallery estimated the operation of the larger Schwarzenberg Palace at ten million crowns annually, but according to earlier calculations, up to six million should be earned by the restaurant that is to be located in the building.