Desfours Palace

The aristocrat Franz Desfours-Walderode bought the unfinished house from him and used it as his residence. It has carried his name ever since for the nobleman personally contributed to the project.

History of the Desfours Palace

At first sight, Desfours Palace is rather inconspicuous. However, magnificently decorated interiors are found behind rigid classicist facades with Neo-Renaissance elements divided only by ground floor bossages. The painter Karel Nacovský and the sculptor and stucco master Ferdinand Pischelt contributed to the interior decoration, and Jan Nevole was the builder. The painting decoration of Desfours Palace has remained one of the most illustrious examples of Czech mural painting of the mid-19th century.

The Desfours family did not stay in the palace for long. The count's wife sold it after his death in 1878. The Krasnopolski family bought the palace in 1900 but later became victims of World War II. The house had multiple owners and underwent inconsiderate reconstructions. During the socialist era, the palace interior was divided into flats and offices; later the west wing and the garden pavilion were demolished to build the editorial office and printing house for the Rudé právo newspaper. In 1958, the house was designated as a cultural monument. The building has been empty and dilapidated since the 1990s. In 1995, it passed into the ownership of the City of Prague which entrusted it to the Prague City Museum's administration in 2020.