Clam-Gallas Palace

Johann Wenzel Count von Gallas, a supreme imperial diplomat, Habsburg ambassador in London, delegate to Papal Curia, the Highest Marshal of Bohemian Crown, Member of the Privy Council, Knight of the Golden Fleece Order, Spanish Grand and ViceRoy in Naples had called up an elite imperial court architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach from Vienna to design the new family palace. In place of an older and smaller palace the works started in 1714.  Family von Gallas submitted all sculptural decorations to famous workshop of Matthias Bernard Braun and paintings to an excellent Italian painter Carlo Innocenzo Carloni, who was famous in Vienna, to paint great frescos – monumental Opuses – allegorical scenes from antique mythology. The palace had been from the very beginning conceived as a prestigious centre of power and authority. The Gallas Family were generous benefactors of visual arts, music, and theatre. The palace had always been one of the most important centres of social life in Prague. (i.e. W. A. Mozart in 1787 or L. van Beethoven in 1796 performed there). Today the palace complex is used for the needs of the Archive of the Capital City of Prague. Every year during carnival saison this palace is Residence of Carnevale Praha and few balls and events are produced there. The most famous of them is The Crystal Ball.