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[Czechoslovakia Background Material] 11/17/90 [OA 8318] [3]
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[Czechoslovakia Background Material] 11/17/90 [OA 8318] [3]
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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Speech Backup Chronological Files
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S
S
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
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Speech File Backup Files
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Chron File, 1989-1993
OA/ID Number:
13738
Folder ID Number:
13738-007
Folder Title:
[Czechoslovakia Background Material] 11/17/90 [OA 8318] [3]
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G
26
21
1
5
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Obeill Ram R
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The Schoenborn Palace
A History of the
American Chancery Building
in Prague
(Am. Embassy
)
By Brigitte Hauger
Introduction
An Embassy chancery is the building that houses the many
activities comprising any American overseas mission. It is the
office of the Ambassador. the President's personal repre-
sentative in the conduct of foreign affairs with another country.
It also houses the Embassy Political, Economic and
Commercial, Consular, and Press and Cultural Sections. and
the military attachés accredited to the country, plus the admin-
istrative staff that helps keep the building in order and
cares for the mission's other material needs. All of these offices
work in one way or another on aspects of Czechoslovak-
American relations, from discussions at the Foreign Office
to arranging for concerts or business contacts. Several
American families live in this building as well, and the
International School, with children from many countries in its
classrooms, is quartered here.
In Prague, we are fortunate to have one of the most
attractive and historic of all American Embassy buildings,
the Schoenborn Palace. It was purchased by the U.S. Govern-
ment as a Legation in 1924 from its then owner, Richard
Crane, the American Slavophile who was the first American
diplomatic representative accredited to the Czechoslovak
Republic. This structure, initially built in the 15th Century,
reflects something of Czechoslovakia's history in its own
development in later centuries. Thanks to the patient and
detailed work of Mrs. Brigitte Hauger, who lived here from 1969
to 1972 when her husband was assigned to the Embassy,
we now have assembled a history of the chancery building,
which it is our pleasure to share with you.
Thomas R. Byrne
Ambassador of the United States of America
The Schoenborn Palace,
Prague,
January 1976.
3
A Necessary Foreword
An Embassy is not overly concerned with history. It serves
as a present link between two countries, as they are and as they
act. But an Embassy is not only a function; an ambassador
and his staff need a place to operate, a place to live, and an
American diplomat assigned to Prague soon finds his place
very much involved with history. Entering the main gate of the
American Embassy, he steps more than two hundred years
back in time, facing a garden which astounded foreign
visitors three centuries ago. Unfortunately, although the
American Government has owned the Schoenborn Palace for
nearly half a century, it has until now coped with its
historical load by means of a one-page leaflet handed out to
visitors; these were the owners, this stairway was for horses, and
we bought the place at a good price. It was built, reconstructed,
and finished in neatly defined years, involving architects
and artists of undoubted quality. However, history does not
lend itself to one-page leaflets, and a good house in a city is
like a person in a crowd, that is involved in but not defined
by it, equipped with personal traits which shun all definition,
and yet part of that amorphous moving entity called history.
A few personal words are necessary. I came here as a
Foreign Service wife in 1969 with no day-to-day office work
to do. I was unhappy with the one-page leaflet and thought that
we should know a little more about the history of our Palace.
So I started my "research," suffering from many
interruptions, obstacles and a general inclination to take
it easy. Three years seem like a long time at the beginning;
towards the end they have a tendency to run away.
My greatest original help came from Josef Kaplan, an
employee of the Embassy, who put me in touch with Petr
Herman of the "Pražské středisko Státní památkové péče
a ochrany přírody" (Prague Center of the State Office for
Preservation of Old Buildings and Protection of Nature). This
office maintains a record of every historical building in Prague:
each one is equipped with a so-called "passport" which
contains all known facts about the building concerned.
The Schoenborn Palace "passport" was made accessible for me
by Správa služeb (Office for Services to the Diplomatic Corps),
and a translation was kindly provided by Ing. Karel Herbrych.
The "passport" served as a control for the Palace's
general history; the attached drawings provided an excellent
guide to the age of various parts of the building, especially
in connection with the McNayr drawings of 1928. Brooding
over plans was one of the most tedious and tricky parts of my
work. I relied on the "passport" for the Renaissance period
(exceptions are noted in the text), and it was an invaluable
help in finding original documents in the Prague City
Archives. However, the main shortcoming of the "passport"
4
originates with the fact that neither the Colloredo Archives
(at Zámrsk) nor the Schoenborn Archives (at Klatovy) are yet
sorted or accessible. Considering the fact that my historical
training and my private time were limited, I did not make
an attempt to gain access to these untapped resources.
I limited myself to some research in the University Library,
general "Pragensia," and a specific interest in all material
pertaining to the matter concerned.
Invaluable personal help came from several Czech friends
and acquaintances, especially from Paní Inka Blažková who not
only told me about her childhood in the Schoenborn gardens
but also supplied old photographs and postcards. Count
Erwein Schoenborn was kind enough to answer several
questions by letter although it was no substitute for personal
talk with him.
The picture material was sometimes difficult to find, and
in most cases I had to do with second-rate reproductions.
Jindřich Herbrych did wonders with the tired material I gave
him, and he turned some of my inept sketches into clear
graphic language.
A word of caution: nothing in this condensed record should
be taken as an indisputable fact. The "passport" itself
is not free of contradictions, mistakes and obscurities. For
a great part, I relied on secondary sources. My attempt to be as
clear and honest as possible, is, infortunately, no guarantee
of historical truth.
Brigitte Hauger
Brigitte Hauger was born near Bremen, Germany, and
attended school there, and in Goettingen and Munich. She is
married to Donald W. Hauger, who spent three years as
Second Secretary of the American Embassy, Prague, for Press
and Cultural Affairs. It was during that period, 1969-72
that she wrote this history of Schoenborn Palace, the
American Embassy building in Prague. The Haugers have
lived in Hannover, Germany, since 1972, where Mr. Hauger
is director of the Amerika-Haus
The Street
If you could somehow be transported to the 13th century
in order to see the very beginnings of the Schoenborn Palace on
Tržiště Street, you would be well advised to wear hip
boots because Tržiště at that time was a soggy medieval moat.
It ran west, paralleling the city walls in Malá Strana,
Prague's "Little Side," across the Vltava River from Prague's
Old Town. A vestige of this period can be found if you walk
down Tržiště from the Embassy and turn left into Karmelitská
in the direction of Malostranské náměstí. There you pass two
curious houses on your left. One has a slanted front of raw
bricks and the other one is very narrow (No. 516-111). These
houses are the last remaining witnesses of the time when this
was the entrance gate to Malá Strana, the so-called Újezd
Gate. Beyond it the street led out into the country to the
village of Újezd (today absorbed by the city and only
remembered in a street name). The gate lost its function when
Charles IV had the moat filled in and extended the city
limits to the south although it remained as a monument until
1727 when it was finally torn down.
The former moat which was eventually to be Tržiště became
Nová ulice, the "new street" leading from the Üjezd Gate up
to the vineyards. Houses were erected on its south side, and
its extension, Vlašská ulice, came into existence as a planned
housing project for the large Italian community in Prague.
The lower, wider part of the street became the market place of
Malá Strana, hence the name Tržiště or Neumarkt. Looking
at a plan of the area, you can still detect traces of the
historical background. The houses on the north side of Tržiště
are crowded together in two rows between the street and
Malostranské náměstí, because the Renaissance houses were
built on the foundations of medieval houses huddled together
within the narrow limits of the city walls. The south side,
where the Embassy stands, allowed for more generous buildings,
inhibited only by the slope of the hillside behind. By
comparison, the plan of Vlašská looks like the regular pattern
of a modern suburb.
The Renaissance Period
Mala Strana, the Lesser Town of Prague, was a densely
(1500-1620)
populated area before it became the seat of the aristocracy after
the Czech defeat at the Battle of White Mountain (1620).
Craftsmen, merchants, scribes and master builders displayed
their prosperity as citizens of one of the richest and most
important capitals of the Holy Roman Empire.
Between 1500 and 1600 the area of the later Palace was
occupied by five houses and a malthouse. None of the houses
remained, but the old foundations were never destroyed and
determined the general shape and accounted for the many
irregularities of the present ground plan of the Palace.
Very little is known about several of the houses before
1587. They had been under the jurisdiction of the Tyn
Church in Old Town, the records of which are lost. Occasional
sales records, legal questions, and the fact that aristocratic
owners had them entered in the "Landtafel" (registered
property of the nobility), help to fill in the blanks. This
explains the apparent differences mentioned below in the age
of the houses concerned, which are accidental and do not
tell anything about their real age.²
House A. the westernmost house that was later incorporated
into the present Palace, existed before 1496 when it was sold
by a tailor's widow for 29 Schock Meissner (from now on
1cf. P. 14
referred to as S.M.). It was originally connected with the
neighboring house, No. 362, today harboring a police station.
2Before we enter the somewhat spotty
After several changes of ownership it was sold in 1538,
history of each of these buildings, we
"including well, nursery and garden," to the scribe Jan Starý
have to learn a lesson about money.
One of the most popular means of payment
as the "House in the Corner." Later the house was owned by
in the 1500's was the "grossus denarius.'
the Italian master builder Dominik de Margo. One of his
a coin equal to several Latin "denarii."
daughters inherited the house in 1567 after her father returned
The name was originally limited to "
to Italy. Dominika was married to another master builder,
certain kind. the French "tournose."
Oldřich Avostalis, one of the most important builders and
representing a value of twelve German
pennies. Named after the mint of Tours.
architects of the Renaissance period in Prague (Archbishop's
this coin in the coursé of the 13th century
residence on the Hradčany, restoration of Karlstejn, etc.)
was also minted in Lorraine, the
and also appointed to the Imperial court under Maximilian II
Netherlands, and in the next century all
and Rudolph II. Avostalis was also responsible for the
over Germany. The most famous and
aforementioned Italian community project in Vlašská ulice.
historically important copies were "Prague
grossus" (minted under Václav 11 in
The Renaissance building boom had brought Italian builders
Kutná Hora) and the "Meissen grossus"
and their companies of masons to Prague, and they required
(minted under Frederic I of Meissen
their own houses, church and hospital. Avostalis became
since 1307). The German word
quite rich and owned several houses in the city, but he lived
"Groschen" (still existent today for the
10 Pfennig coin) originated with the
in the house on Nová ulice (Tržiště) until he died in 1598.
Czech pronunciation of "grossus,"
It is therefore probable that he rebuilt the old house in the grand
"groš." It is not the Prague but the Meissen
style, although it is impossible to determine to what extent.
"Groschen" which figures in the sales
The Avostalis House had three floors and was divided into
documents we are concerned with.
One "Schock" represents the number 60,
two tracts by a strong wall running parallel to Vlašská.
and one "Guilder" ( the gold coin
It had a prominent east gable. The ground plan indicates that
appearing only out of rich men's purses)
there were originally two Renaissance entrance ways, of
roughly equals one "Schock Meissner."
which only the eastern one now exists. It is also possible
Memorris.
yes
The Castle of Prague and Malá Strana.
Taken from Praga Bohemiae Metropolis
Accuratissime Expressa. 1562:
woodent /,,, J. Kozel and M. Peterle of
Annaberg in Prague
MORE
"
1. Hradcany and Malá Strana: detail
from An Orthographic Sketch of Prague
(1769), by Joseph Daniel Huber.
2. Malá Strana and Hradcany (1606);
after Sadler.
3. Contemporary view of Hradcamy with
Schoenborn Palace in the foreground.
The view from the Glóriette.
Mone Maurcaty Theys
wafer
I iew of the Petrin 11ill I 16431. by
I áclas Hollar: from Prospectus Aliquot
Locorum in Diversis Provinciis.
that he erected the high tower with the staircase which is still
in evidence today.
By Avostalis' death the house was still referred to as
"divided in two parts by a garden," i.e., it was still connected
with No. 362. The increased worth of this property is evident
in the selling price: this and two other houses on Üjezd
were sold to Eliás Šmidgrabner of Lustenek. "rent-master
of the Kingdom of Bohemia," for 5,000 S.M. Four
years later, in 1602, it was resold "with a small vineyard
behind the house" to Wolf Helcl von Šternštejn, the German
accountant of the "Boehmische Hofkammer" (Bohemian
Chamber) for 3,000 S.M. Helcl changed the layout of the house
considerably. He sold the west end of his property with the
divided garden and thus No. 362 became independent. The
erection of a new brick gable on the east wall of his
property led to a legal quarrel with his neighbor Mundbroth
who claimed the wall for himself. Imperial commissioners
investigated the matter and decided that the wall was common
property. Jakub of Altenštejn, secretary of the Imperial
Chamber, bought the Helcl House with garden and vineyard in
1607 for 5,700 S.M. One year later he also bought House B.
House B, just east of House A, was much smaller than
the Avostalis-Helcl House. It was bounded on the west by
the dividing line between Vlašská and Tržiště ("old" and
"new" parts of the Palace) and on the east by the west wall
of the central entrance way. House B had belonged to Prokop
Kozdraka in 1508. After his death in 1520, his widow sold
it to Václav Knap. Knap was apparently in debt up to his
ears and used the house as a payment to his creditor Jiří
Boreš, a cloth merchant. Boreš sold it to a "widow
Katharina" for 70 S.M. Either he was a good salesman or
Katharina ruined the house in a short time because as soon
as 1525 she resold it for only 34 S.M. It changed hands
again in 1534 (45 S.M.), 1535 (same price). 1538 (same price)
and 1540 (65 S.M.) It finally burned down in the great fire
which destroyed many houses of Malá Strana in 1541.3 Jan
Starý, the same prosperous scribe who had purchased the
future Avostalis House in 1538, acquired the lot. For the
rest of the century, little is known about the house. It
came under the jurisdiction of the Old Town church Mary at
the Týn (Týn Church). In 1601, Jeroným Mundbroth bought
the house, again under the jurisdiction of Malá Strana,
from the advocate of the orphans of the former owner, Mikuláš
Purger, for 1,200 S.M. (note the increased value). Jakub of
Altenštejn, the secretary, bought it from him in 1608 for
3.After this fire began the great
1,700 S.M. Houses A and B had the same owner from then on.
Renaissance rebuilding of Hradcany and
Both were purchased in 1614 by Stefan Smid von Freihof zu
Malá Strana. Large houses of ordinary
citizens (c% Avostalis) competed with the
Kunstat for 12,000 S.M. This transaction brought the
now emerging city palaces of the nobility.
Smidovsky House into existence: both houses were
connected and remained a unit until the Colloredo Palace
was constructed.
Houses C and D: In the year 1588 Anselm von Fels bought
two houses "in the New Street, which leads from Újezd. on
the left side.' House C was sold by the goldsmith Simon
Miller for 800 S.M. House D. the so-called Peřejovský House,
was sold by Zikmund Brozanský of Vršovice for the same price.
Both houses were from then on under the jurisdiction of Malá
Strana "in order that they shall be connected into a single
house not only for the use of von Fels but also as an
embellishment of the town. 4
Fels' property was limited on one side by the west wall of the
main entryway (Smídovský House) and on the other by the
wall which divides the central part of the Palace from the east
part. Like Helel and Mundbroth farther up the street, Fels
and his neighbor, Purger, got into a disagreement about
their common wall.5 A contract entered into the Malá Strana
Books in 1591 determines that both parties have a right to
build onto a wall, as long as "the new wall" of Fels is not
damaged. Purger (who apparently wanted to raise his eastern
gable) was not allowed to close off any of the Fels' windows
facing west, one of which received a new iron grill. Fels
contributed 23 "taler" (a silver coin, origin of the dollar,
named at the mint in Joachimsthal-Jáchymov) for a new
sanitation ditch dug by Purger, and Purger had to promise to fill
in the old one. Ondřej von Fela inherited Fels' house.
After his death, Ondrej's widow sold it to Lazar Henkel von
Donnersmarck for 9,000 S.M., an increase of more than 7,500
S.M. since Houses C and D were purchased. From then on
Fels' property was integrated into the Henkel House.
House E: East of Fels' house stood in 1550 the house of
the family Vilém Klenovský of Klenov. It was bought by the
family Leskovec of Leskov and stayed in their possession until
1609 when Arnošt of Leskovec sold it to Lazar Henkel von
Donnersmarck (by then already owner of the Fels House)
for 2,900 S.M.
The Henkel House (C. D. E): Henkel von Donnersmarck,
a member of the aristocracy, proceeded to rebuild the two
houses in 1609, probably with the help of the master builder
Antonín Brok of Campion who listed in his will 300 taler
"Herr Henkel owes me for mason work." Henkel supplied the
two-story building with a high attic (decorative wall above
Books.of Malá Strana
the entallature of the building). the facade decorated by
5/1 seems that common walls really
stone pilasters. The whole concept was doubtlessly influenced
presented " problem at that time.
by Palladio (1508 -- 1580), one of the major Italian architects.
Nobody seemed 111 know what to do and
We can see this ambitious building in construction in the
what not 10 do with such " thing. Physical
closeness and the highly developed
anonymous engraving "The Assault of the Passau Troops"
sense of private property created one of
(1611) which, at the same time, is the earliest picture showing a
()
the earlier problems of urban life.
part of the later Palace. The engraving depicts a simple low
building on the left with a gable facing the street. Next to it is a
high vaulted entrance framed by two pillars standing free in
front of the unfinished second story. On the right a story
is already finished, and the pillars are topped by an ornamented
attic. The Henkel House, which was never finished, was
surely one of the outstanding buildings in pre-Baroque Prague.
In 1621, the house came into possession of Stefan Smid
von Freihof who was by then already the owner of the
Šmidovský House. He paid the formidable sum of 20,000 S.M.
The Malthouse: It belonged originally to the western
part of No. 359 (now the east neighbor of the Schoenborn
Palace) as working quarters. The owner of No. 359, Jifi,
signed over the property to his wife Johanna. After his death in
1541 she married another maltster and when he also died.
she carried on the tradition with Jan Sláma, another
representative of the guild. When Sláma died. his house on
Malostranské náměstí "with the malthouse, next to the house of
the Knight Vilém Klenovský with a vineyard" was given to the
gardener Klaudius by the King himself for faithful services.
The faithful gardener had to pay a "regalium." the common
tax imposed by the King, without deduction. Klaudius sold
house and malthouse for 600 S.M. The property thereafter
changed hands very quickly, until it finally came to rest in
the hands of the brewer family Glauch. There is a will
which tells a little about the matter involved: "My house in
Malá Strana, the brewery with all accessories, i.e., tools,
store house, wheat, hops and all the malt in the malthouse
I inherited from my husband, the wood on a pile for
drying the malt, prepared for burning, I bequeath to
"
The malthouse stayed in the possession of the family Glauch
until 1646 when Count Colloredo-Wallsee, the Grand Master
of the Priorate of the Maltese Knights,⁶ added it to his two
other houses (Šmídovský and Henkel). He bought it for 800
Rhenish Guilders, and since then it has been put to uses other
than producing one of the main ingredients of beer.
By 1620 --- roughly the end of the Renaissance period five
houses had already been integrated into two larger units, the
Šmidovský and the Henkel houses. The Henkel house was, as we
have seen, still under construction in 1611. Nothing
is known about the changes Smid undertook after 1614, but
according to a later document he united the two properties he
had bought into a single house. It is this part of the Palace
which is the least affected by Baroque changes, and to this
day the west part (Vlašská Street) remains distinctly and
clearly different from the other parts. This overall impression
is confirmed by the more hidden parts of the buildings,
i.e., the cellars and the age of the wallwork.
Let us first consider the facade of this older, western
171
part. It is very plain without any ornaments except for a
wide ledge under the fourth floor windows. The simple windows
of the first three floors vary only slightly in size, the ones
on the fourth floor are very small and square. The arrangement
of the windows into vertically constant groups of two and three
accentuates the facade somewhat. There are six such window
axes in the rhythm 2-3-2, 2-3-2. Under the second window
axis from the left (east) there is a typical Renaissance
"Bossage" portal, built from rough stones set in a diamond
pattern. Originally, there was a similar portal under the fifth
axis, an opinion confirmed by the fact that the wallwork
in this place as well as in the corresponding place in the
courtyard originates in the 19th century while it is still
Renaissance in the upper floors. The thruway leading from the
existent portal opens rather awkwardly into the east corner
of the western courtyard, and the portal on that side is partly
obscured by the west center wing, further proof that it was
not part of the baroque design.
The most obvious remnant of the Renaissance period on
the courtyard side is the great staircase tower and the
adjoining arcades (they were still open in the 20th century
and got their windows after 1930). The tower itself was
part of the oldest Renaissance building, which was originally
three floors high. The tower at first had five stories. The
sixth story with its early Baroque ornamentation was added at
a later date, at the same time as the sightseeing arcades.
Very intriguing is the relation of the tower structure
with the cellars. We have already pointed out that all main
walls are of Renaissance origin, in many parts extending up
to the third floor. While the Renaissance building had already
two tracts (a thick dividing wall ran the full length of the
west palace parallel to the street), the long main cellar
(today storage room) is situated only under the street tract;
with a small extension under the garden tract. The smaller
square cellar in the west (divided from the main cellar by an
original thick wall) coincides exactly with the location of
the tower (3rd window axis from the west), except for the fact
that the tower is raised over the garden tract and the cellar
is sunk under the street tract.
There are several possible explanations for this coincidence.
One is, of course, that the street tract within the cellars
is older. However, the foundations of the tower reach down to
the same depth as the cellars. The most logical theory seems
to be that there was an original cone-tract building with
a tower set behind it. A later builder continued the tower walls
and added the whole south tract. The arcades, like the
⁷Even after the Renaissance style went
sixth tower story, although Renaissance in appearance, came
"out of fashion, it continued its
into existence around 1650.7
influence. and Colloredo had good reasons
to favor the Italian preference for
There is a possibility that parts of the cellars are of Gothic
2
open-air sight-seeing constructions.
origin, but this could only be determined by an investigation
of the walls by an expert. No part of the western "Old
Palace" was changed after the 17th century. with the possible
exception of the addition of the fourth floor and regulating
of the roof in line with the main Palace.
The Renaissance look of the small eastern part of the
Šmídovský House (B) was largely destroyed by the Baroque
main staircase in the garden tract. The cellar (connected with
the main cellar by a barrel vaulted thruway) however, shows
the original structure, occupying the space unter the staircase,
the adjoining gatekeeper's room and the room opening
to the street (today the USIS Library). We enter the cellars
today by way of the west center wing (west corner). After
you enter the first cellar, you face a simple arched entrance
to the second, 2m high and 1.6m wide, framed by two upright
sandstone slabs and topped by three others in a half circle,
slightly molded on the inside. This entrance is a remnant of
the original house. The only room upstairs of a distinct
Renaissance character is in the Library. It has a beautiful
stucco ceiling with a geometrical pattern with an octagonal
"mirror" in the center. The arched supports do not reach
down to the floors but are undercut by typical Renaissance
molded brackets where walls and ceiling meet. Also Renais-
sance are the cast iron gratings in front of the windows ---
simple crossed rods with an intertwining circle in the center.
Although not a part of the "old" part of the Palace,
there are some similar Renaissance remnants farther east. The
main thruway as well as the adjoining three rooms to the east
have a distinct Renaissance appearance, although the original
walls rise only in fragments above the ground floor level
(the walls of the main thruway and old ballroom, today a
reception room and consular offices). The ground floor rooms
have identical window grills (cf. Library) on the street front,
and their ceilings have Renaissance type stucco ridges which
accentuate the intricate vaultings, especially in the south-
east corner room. Particularly interesting is the outside
window of this room which lost its function after the east
center wing was built. It can be seen from the left of the
wide stairs leading up from the east-south corner of the main
courtyard. Its frame is obscured by a small metal door, but
the molded window sill is still visible - a memory of the time
when Colloredo (or even goldsmith Miller) had an unobscured
view of the sloping vineyards.
The formidable post-1609 Henkel House cut much deeper
into the former structures than the western projects did, and
tracing any of them would be a mere conjecture. The cellar
under the west part of the eastern section (now housing the
heating plant) is Baroque in appearance ---- it might be older,
but nobody has looked under the plaster work yet. There are no
traces of the much-inherited malthouse The
officially the end of the Renaissance period, but there is,
of course, no distinct year which acts as a temporal watershed.
Almost a century went by before the Baroque style in
Prague was fully developed.
The Early Baroque Period
Curious as it might seem, the early Baroque history of
(1620-1643)
the Palace is more obscure than the Renaissance records.
Neither do we know much about the changes brought about by
the first owners of both the Šmídovský and Henkel Houses,
nor is even the question of ownership quite clear. Stefan
Šmid von Freyhof "gave" the Henkel House to the Emperor in
1621, after he had just purchased it for 20,000 S.M., a
mysterious transaction, especially since it occurred in the
year of the extensive post-White Mountain confiscations.
Somehow both the Henkel and Šmídovský Houses passed into
possession of Karl, Prince of Liechtenstein, in 1625: he had
them removed from the jurisdiction of Malá Strana and
entered into the Estate Register under the name of his good
friend, Cardinal Dietrichstein, in 1626, who became the next
owner. Although both Liechtenstein and Dietrichstein
"purchased" the houses, there are no known sales documents.
At this point, it is necessary to make an excursion into
political history. These were the crucial years for Bohemia,
and Liechtenstein as well as Dietrichstein played an important
role in them.
The young Habsburg Empire had just passed through one of
the most critical ordeals of its history. Bohemia, the
"Treasure Chest of the Holy Roman Empire," had been a
volcano ever since Hus challenged the Roman Church in the
early fifteenth century. It had remained a nation of "heretics"
even after Hus was burned at the stake, a people fiercely
aware of their right to choose their own king and their own
religion. In 1618, the Bohemians revolted against an unwanted
Catholic Habsburg succession by throwing three of the
Imperial emissaries out of the window of the royal castle on the
Hradčany. (This method has been curiously termed as the
Bohemian 'Policy of Defenestration, since it had occurred
during the Hussite revolt.) This incident, unbloody as it
was - all three remained alive and well - triggered off the
devastating Thirty Years War, although the war was finished
for the Bohemian Estates after two years. The Battle of
White Mountain in 1620 put an end to independent Bohemian
politics for nearly three hundred years, condemning Prague
to the role of a provincial city, subjected to the Habsburg
capital, Vienna.
Ferdinand II was the heir to Matthias of Habsburg. the
last ruler of the Holy German Empire resident in Hradcany
castle, who spent his last years there as a paranoid, unable
to conduct the normal business of government. Ferdinand,
on the other hand, was shrewd, suspicious, and a steadfast
Catholic. He remained in Vienna, transferring the powers of
government to his faithful servant, Liechtenstein.
Together with Cardinal Dietrichstein and Karl von Žerotín
(Wallenstein's brother-in-law), Liechtenstein was a leader
of the Moravian Estates, which played a very shrewd and
careful role during the uprising of the Bohemian Estates.8
They had remained aloof but not hostile, waiting to see how
the dice would fall. While Zerotín decided to go along with
the Bohemians, Liechtenstein and Wallenstein put their
services early on the Emperor's side. Wallenstein even went as
far as to sneak away with the treasure chest of the Moravian
Estates.
They had placed their bets on the winning side. On
March 15, 1621, court convened for the first time on Hradcany
castle to decide the fate of the Czech rebels. The chairman
was Karl Liechteristein, named by the Emperor as president of
the tribunal. The accusation was insurgency, breach of peace,
and lese majeste - the outcome was clear enough. Liechtenstein
was somewhat reluctant, therefore, the unavoidable
execution was postponed several times thanks to his inter-
ventions. But being only a deputy of the Emperor his influence
was limited. The twenty-four Czech nobles were executed
June 21, 1621, on Old Town Square. The fact that he had acted
according to the Emperor's wishes was rewarded early in 1622,
when Ferdinand II promulgated several decrees which made
Liechtenstein vice-regent with practically unlimited powers:
"So that he, in the whole Kingdom of Bohemia, as well
in matters of war as of law, in summa in everything, no exception
granted, may govern, rule, dispose, order, prohibit, and do
anything His Grace the Prince of Liechtenstein may consider
as good in order to further our benefit and advantage,
without any hindrance, free and secure. Since the Emperor
himself was still involved in the great war which had just begun,
he needed a reliable man to rule the affairs of his defeated
crown land. In short, Liechtenstein was granted virtual
dictatorial powers, and he used them immediately to call up the
court of confiscations which convened on January 22, 1622.
The actions of this court caused a total social upheaval,
perhaps equalled only after 1948. Three-quarters of the Czech
⁸The Moravian Estates had their own
lands were confiscated in the name of the victorious Emperor
Diet (upper house). although Moravia was
and redistributed among his followers. Because of the war,
a part of the Bohemian Kingdom.
the once affluent citizens of Prague, craftsmen and merchants,
"Wallenstein, Hellmut Diwald, 1.15.71
lost their peacetime customers and were glad to sell their
translated from German)
property, particularly in view of the
Plat of Tréisté and Surroundings: detail
powerful official was able to exert on mere subjects. The earliest
from Prague Plan (1811), by Juettner.
and the most famous example is the Valdštejn Palace.
Some 26 houses and gardens, a whole city quarter in the limited
boundaries of the time, were razed to make room for the
gigantic project of the Emperor's star general.
The aristocracy who had come to power after the Battle of
White Mountain, but also the old Bohemian families who had
survived the confiscations, asserted their new importance by
competing for the most magnificent buildings. Karl Eusebius
Liechtenstein (either the already mentioned or a close
relative) wrote a work about architecture "in which he stressed
the need of increasing the glory of noble families by the
splendor of their palaces and castles. "10
It was now that Liechtenstein. that owner of the Smidovský
and Henkel Houses for barely a year, sold them to Dietrichstein.
Perhaps Liechtenstein had not acquired them for his personal
use but rather as an agent of the Crown. Some sources claim
that he rebuilt and connected them, but the time seems rather
short for such an action. In any event, his successor,
Cardinal Franz Dietrichstein, had much in common with
Liecht:nstein. Both belonged to the high aristocracy, and
both were members of the Moravian estates. Dietrichstein
was born in 1570 in Madrid. A Cardinal and Bishop of Olmouc
when he was 39 years old, he was a great fighter for the
Catholic cause. Even before the Battle of White Mountain
dealt the final blow to Czech Protestantism he relieved
all Protestants under his jurisdiction of their offices, and
many left the country. He took part in three papal elections
and almost became Pope himself in 1623. He also was an
esteemed adviser to three Habsburg Emperors. In 1611, he
crowned Matthias as Bohemian King and as Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire.
It might seem strange to the modern mind that a Cardinal
was entrusted with an important military post in a time of
crisis. In 1618, the Moravian Estates had even named
Dietrichstein as Commander-in-Chief of all Moravian troops.
In the context of history, however, such a move was only
natural. There was no division between Church and State, in
fact there was an ultimate mutual dependence, and "political"
appointments in the Church were as common as bequeathing a
rewarding prebend on important members of the aristocracy.
No wonder that Dietrichstein's standing and well-known
militant Catholicism put him on the most-wanted list of the
Bohemian rebels. While attending a diet of the Bohemian and
Moravian Estates in Brno, he was captured and put in jail.
He was, among other things, made responsible for the money
Wallenstein had taken (Wallenstein had been smart enough
not to attend the diet), and he implored the Emperor to
6
10The Palaces of Prague. Kubiček. p.57.
return it to the Estates in order to free him. It was the most
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Façade of "Old Palace" with Renaissance
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Ground plan of the Palace. Black:
Renaissance walls : trav
A
B
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Malthouse
"Peřejovský"
1496 Markéta
Anna von
Alberič
1508 Dorothea
1508 Prokop
Letecká
Kozdraka
1520 Václav Knap
Jiri Bores
Katharina
1525 Michal von
Volešnice
1531 Jiii Vosovsky
von Adlare
1534 Johann Senkyr
1535 Jan Formánek
1538 Jan Stary
1538 Jifi Mydlar
1540 Ludmila
Dominik de Margo
1541 Burned
Zikmund
Simon Miller
1541 Jiri
Blažek Vinar
Brožansky
Johanna
1543 Jan Starý
2 Jifi Divuček
Peter Fontana
3 Jan Slama
1550 Vilém
Klenovský
1553 Klaudius
Vávra Stary
Jan Bilek
2 Pavel Winkler
1564 Mikulás Purger
Dorothea
1567 Dominika
Leskovec
Oldrich
Avostalis
Simon Fuch
1588 Anselm von Fels
Elias Smidgrabner
1594 Ondrej von Fels
Arnost Leskovee
1602 Wolf Helel
1601 Jeroným
von Sternstejn
Mundbroth
1607 Jakub von
1608 Jakub von
1608 Lazar Henkel
1608 Lazar Henkel
1608 Eva Huttenová
Altenstejn
1609 Lazar Henkel
Altenštejn
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Matthias
Donnersmarck
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1614 Stefan Smid von Freihof
"Henkel"
"Smidovsky"
Jan Frid von Minkvice
1621 Stefan Smid von Freihof
1625 Karl Prinz von Liechtenstein
1626 Cardinal Franz Dietrichstein
1643 Colloredo
1646 Colloredo
Colloredo
Schematic plan showing the changes of
miserable time in Dietrichstein's life, and apparently he did not
ownership of the original houses
bear it like a Cardinal. He pleaded innocent, he cried,
before 1646.
he offered to resign from all his offices and to leave the country.
Finally, all his Moravian estates were confiscated, and he
was banned "for eternity." He fled to Vienna, where "eternity"
lasted little more than a year. In 1620, his enemies crushed
on White Mountain, he returned, and became more powerful
than ever. He was made Governor of Moravia and Highest
Commissioner of Justice. In 1623, once more holding an
influential position as one of the Emperor's advisers, he was
awarded the dignity of a Prince by Ferdinand II. Such was the
status and character of the third owner of both the Šmidovský
and Henkel Houses.
The houses remained in Dietrichstein's possession until
his death in 1636. His heir, Maximilian von Dietrichstein,
sold both houses to the Emperor for 16,000 Guilders. The
next, and one of the most important owners was Rudolph,
Count of Colloredo-Wallsee. There is extant a document
"given after the Sunday Exaudi, i.e. the twentieth of May,
1643" 11 "Such we sell in the name and acting for His
Majesty the King as his designated Director and Chamberlaine
to Herrn Colloredo, Count of Valse, both Houses situated
in the Lesser Town of Prague, Italian Street (Vlašské),
entered in the Estate Register, formerly known as the Henkel
and Šmídovský Houses, lately known as the Prince
Dietrichstein Houses, including Gardens, waterfalls (?? not
legible), also other appurtenances, complete jurisdiction
and rights
as were owned and enjoyed by the
Princes of Dietrichstein and the former possessors from
ages past.
Colloredo belonged to the so-called "war-nobility" of
Prague, which means that his name was virtually unknown in
the Bohemian lands before the Battle of White Mountain. He
was one of the generals from all over Europe fighting for
the Emperor. After the victory, they were able to settle
down in Prague and Bohemia - thanks to the Emperor's
gratitude, substantiated by the extensive confiscated estates of
the rebels. Colloredo, one of Ferdinand's most able generals,
was by no means a nouveau riche. His family was originally
Alemannian (South-West-German), but had later settled in the
bishopric of Friuli, west of Trieste near Mols, where they
built their castle (1302). The family split into several
branches, one of them the Bohemian. Rudolph Colloredo
(1585 - 1657), later called "the Lame," had either lost his
leg or the use of it in the decisive battle of Lutzen in which
Gustav Adolf, the leader of the Protestants and Swedish
King, was killed. In 1648, when Prague became once more the
nDZ 302. 246 26. translated from the
(final) battlefield of the Thirty Years War, the veteran
German original.
general, by then Grand Prior of
Knights and Commander of Prague, defended the Old and New
Town successfully against the Swedes.
In his chronicle Poselkyně starých příběhů českých
(Messenger of Old Bohemian Events) Bečkovský describes the
circumstances dramatically: When the Swedes invaded Malá
Strana, Count Colloredo, wearing nothing but a nightgown,
escaped from his Palace on Nová ulice, fled through his gardens.
crossed the river in a rowboat and proceeded to defend
the Old Town. 12
The Swedes were never able to cross the river; they
retreated after the troops had located Malá Strana thoroughly. 13
One of the later owners of the Palace, Friedrich Graf
Schoenborn, gave a lecture in Vienna in 1905, "A Walk
Through Prague," in which he talked about the connection of
his palace with European history "I see myself in memory in the
third floor of this building. From one window I saw the old
part of the Hradčany and the monumental window from
12His mysterious way of escape ties in
which the three Imperial emissaries were thrown on May 18,
nicely with a rumor which, unfortunately,
1618. And when I, turning around, remembered where I was,
cannot be verified anymore; that there
existed an old underground tunnel
I found myself in the house of the same general who ended
leading from an entrance in the third
the Thirty Years War honorably for our fatherland: It was
garden all the way down to the river.
Count Colloredo, Maltese Grand Prior, called 'the Lame'."
A likeness of the Count can be seen in the Church of our
13Since that time. for example. the
originals of the Adriaen de Vries statues in
Lady Below the Chain (in Lázeňská ulice), then part of the
the Valdštejn gardens can be found in
fortified monastery of the Maltese Knights, on an upright
Drottningholm. Sweden.
tombstone in full armour.
The Colloredo Palace
Colloredo bought the houses from the Emperor for 20,000
(1643-1681)
Guilders (according to different sources he might have paid
16,000 or 40,000) in 1643. This date marks the beginning of
the first great building period. After twenty years the
sales records still mention two houses, which indicates that
any connection before that date was more or less superficial.
Now, though, all over Prague the "war-nobility" set out to
prove and establish themselves among the older nobility, and
the most efficient way to do this was to build a palace. 14
The name of the first architect to give the Henkel and
the Šmídovský Houses the features of a monumental palace is
not known, but in all probability he was an Italian.
The Italian craftsmen who had come to Prague during the
Renaissance period continued to dominate Prague architecture
until the end of the century. 15 We can imagine the Italian
Hcf. P. 23
masons and their master builders coming down every morning
from their colony on Vlašská ulice, busily removing "old-
15cf.p.9 f.
fashioned" Renaissance ornaments, relieving the famous (and
probably never finished) Henkel House of columns and attic,
and quickly adapting the newly acquired malthouse 16 from a
place of honest labor to the grandeur of a palace. They must
have fulfilled a great deal of their task before 1660. An
anonymous Strahov drawing from that time shows, indeed, a
building of finished appearance. 17
We can distinguish three parts: the western "old" part
has only three floors whereas the two eastern parts had
already risen to their present height. What distinguishes
the plain rectangular building are the three square towers
raised above the garden tract (i.e. behind the street tract facing
the viewer). The one over the western part is clearly the
same we see today - the one which existed in pre-Baroque
time. 18 It was probably during this time that it acquired
an additional top floor; the early Baroque flat diamond
ornamentation is still in evidence. From the drawing we can
deduce that the two other towers were fashioned after
the earlier one. The arcades are not visible on the drawing.
but it is possible that they were built as a connection between
the three towers and ran the full length of the building.
The Early Baroque Garden
In order to understand the purpose of these open-air
constructions, we have to remember that only now, during
Colloredo's time, the huge garden behind the house became part
of a great castle-garden unit. Neither in Renaissance nor in
Baroque times were people much interested in "nature"
as we conceive of it today. In order to be beautiful, nature had
to be tended to, in fact look as "unnatural" as possible.
Gardening was a mathematical as well as an artistic science.
The ambitious general and Grand Prior Colloredo knew this,
and his gardens became one of the landmarks of Prague. In
order to see geometrical designs properly, you need a vantage
point. This is the reason why sight-seeing towers and altans were
so popular at the time. They were usually open, covered by
canvas, and the stone arches offered an additional frame
16cf. P. 13 f.
to see the tamed nature as a work of art. 19
Up to Colloredo's time, the adjoining slope had not been
Since this drawing is rather schematic
and large-scale. the seeming regularity of
connected with the houses on Nová ulice, with the exception of
the three Palace parts. especially of the
small lots and vineyards. Originally, the land had belonged
lower western one, is probably deceiving.
to the Archbishop's vineyards after 1358 (according to the
decree "Majestate" by Charles IV). The Archbishop Jan von
18 cf. p. 16 f.
Jenstein donated these "difficult" vineyards to his notary and
19.1 view of the royal gardens through the
Mayor of Malá Strana Jindřich von Ansbach ("smithy") as a
arches of the Belvedere on Hradcany will
reward for long services. (The difficulties arose from the
give you 11 live example.
fact that vineyards on a north slone don't have 9 fair
"Smithy" did his best to improve the neglected lots. In due
course, the heirs of the Archbishop re-confiscated them in
1421. Later in the fifteenth century they were finally
restored to private ownership. After several changes of hand,
they came into possession of the family von Proseč in 1557
who owned them for generations and then sold them to
Colloredo 20 Colloredo connected the vineyards to his acquired
houses and adjoining garden lots on Nová ulice. He then
proceeded with the help of his unknown architects to make
his different properties into a greater unit.
The oldest part of this open-air project, at the same time
the only remaining memory of the former vineyards, is, strange
as it might seem, the belvedere or Gloriette at the top of the
gardens. Like the malthouse, it served a very practical purpose
before it was turned into a lofty Baroque sight-seeing temple.
In his "Prospectus Aliquote Locorum in Diversis Provinciis"
("Prospect of Different Locations in Various Provinces") the
renowned engraver Václav Hellar pictured it as it was in 1636:
a wine-press, built in order to process the yields from the
adjoining vineyards, a simple one-story gable roof building.
In the aforementioned Strahov drawing from about 1660,
the wine-press is already adapted to its new function: a
rectangular tower has been added to make it look like a
miniature afterthought to the three-towered Palace down in the
valley. Between these two architectural poles there is the
sweep of a perfect Italian garden. It is divided into two
levels by a huge supporting wall (corresponding to the one
between the present second and third level). On the lower
level, the garden is divided into two terraces, each of them
divided by two crossways into six rectangular chess-pattern
fields, edged by evergreen fences and containing rich floral
arrangements. Above the dividing wall (which probably marks
the old border between the Archbishop's vineyard and the
private lots belonging to the houses) a narrow path, framed on
both sides by hedges or carefully clipped trees, leads straight
up to the Gloriette. The rest of the third garden still seems
to be cultivated as a vineyard. On both the east and west part
of the huge supporting wall we see three huge flower pots with
trees clipped into perfect round shape. There is a document
in the Prague City Archives (M 205/1) telling about a level
quarrel Colloredo had with a neighbor widow about the erection
of this wall. The outcome and the matter itself remain
somewhat foggy, due to magnificent Baroque German
handwirting. It is dated 28/29 April 1643: "Count Colloredo
who recently acquired a house in the Italian Street, formerly
20c1. Birnbaumová, Nékteré zahrady in:
called the Henklish House. intends to build on the
Stoletá Praha, P. 184 ff. Here as in other
parts are contradictions to the "Passport.
Laurentii mountain (Petrín) in the vineyards, under the ones
/ simply took the newer and clearer
belonging to the Prelate of Strahov, water pipes (?), also,
version.
because of the unequal terrain of this garden, a wall
which
would damage (the widow's property), because a fair part
of the garden would be destroyed." Colloredo proved. it goes
without saying, more powerful than the widow.21
Rudolph Colloredo died in 1657, having reached the
venerable age of 72, but his successor Ferdinand Colloredo
continued to build, and we can assume that the Early Baroque
Palace was finished in 1681. This is the date of the Panorama
of Prague, done by Folpertus van Ouden-Allen, a draughtsman
of the renowned Dutch school. His Panorama is done in the
"prospect manner," giving not only the ground-plan of the
city but also an exact bird s-eye view from a certain angle.
The legend for his Panorama is: "There are not only all public
buildings, but the house of every citizen and inhabitant,
which can be pointed out by the finger. "22
In spite of the large scale, the Panorama shows the
Colloredo Palace and adjoining garden very clearly. The
garden wings have been added, partly with the help of the
older towers, mainly the two middle wings. The western wing
has a more accidental connection with the main Palace and was
certainly not part of the overall architectural design. In
all probability, it apparently then consisted of just one
story which did not obscure the beautiful Early Baroque wall
(dividing the Palace from N. 362) as it does today. The
towers then had bell-shaped cupolas, a short-lived Baroque
addition. The first level of the garden adjoins the second
story of the garden wings. In order to achieve this, it must
have been necessary to bring in large amounts of soil. The
wall supporting this terrace was constructed from stone
squares topped by a stone railing. The divided staircase
leading up from the central courtyard was already completed;
it probably had a roof made from light material, such as wood.
According to a popular theory, the fact that these stairs
are more for horses than for pedestrians is due to the lame
Rudolph Colloredo, because they would have enabled him to
reach his residence in the first story of his Palace on
horseback rather than on foot. The trouble with this fetching
explanation is that neither wings nor stairs existed before
Rudolph Colloredo's death. Perhaps later owners simply
wanted a possibility to take horseback rides on the lower
terraces which were only accessible from the central courtyard.
Another entrance to the third garden existed farther up
Vlašská Street, next to the house No. 358 "U Bílého lva"
(White Lion). It was an old cobble-stone passage leading up
to the still existing gardener's cottage and to the Colloredo
riding school which was built around 1700. This passage was
21 Perhaps this was the last straw which
convinced the last malter's widow to
blocked by a new house in 1937. A schematic Strahov drawing
sell the malthouse in 1646.
from 1655 gives a rough picture of this area.
While the Early Baroque Palace itself was apparently
22Wirth, Prague
P.
54.
rather plain and severe in its outlines, the early Colloredo
garden was one of the most admired landmarks of Prague. The
terraces, supporting walls and crowning Gloriette formed an
ideal stage for the formal "Italian" garden architecture
with its clipped trees, geometrically designed flowerbeds,
arcades and fountains. Unfortunately, the existing pictures
give us only a very faint idea how it really looked - large-scale
prospects or drawings cannot pay much attention to intricate
details. Bohuslav Balbín in his "Miscellanies" (Part I, p. 142)
mentions it with admiration, as do other anonymous
contemporary travellers.23
It could be that the Colloredos invested too much in
the garden, and too little in the Palace itself. A commission
of three inspectors investigated the Palace and
adjoining buildings on October 7, 1694, and their findings
smacked of near disaster. The roof was in terrible condition:
parts of the house had no roof at all. The wallwork had
collapsed in several places. An underground passage with spiral
staircase leading from the courtyard up to an arbor on the
first terrace (today air-raid shelter?) was completely
dilapidated, likewise the Gloriette, roof and pillars of the riding
school, wine-press and stables²⁴ were ruinous. Ferdinand
died in 1689. He did not live to see the disastrous report, but
he must have seen the walls crack. His older son Hieronymus
(the founder of the so-called Wallsee branch of the family,
from 1763 Imperial Family Line) decided to do something
about his dilapidated Palace.
The High Baroque Period
The year 1715 marks the beginning of the second and most
(1715-1794)
important building period. We know for certain that the
renowned builder Bartoloměj Scotti (Palace of the Maltese
Grand Prior in Prague) was in charge; he was, however, not
the architect. Although written proof does not exist, experts
agree that the architect was Giovanni Blasius Santin-Aichel,
also known as Santini.
Santini stands next to Ignaz Kilian Dientzenhofer among the
outstanding architects of Prague and Bohemian Baroque.
Born in 1677, he was a descendant of an Italian mason family
which immigrated to Prague during the 16th century. In the
Baroque period, the important role of the Italian migrant
builders (cf.p.9) had ceased and been taken over by South
Bavarians. Santini's family had intermarried and been
23cf. Birnbaumová, p. 158.
germanized for three generations. His mixed ancestry
24The Colloredo buildings adjoining the
notwithstanding, Santini was one of the few architects who
passage 10 the third garden, cf. P. 35.
developed a truly Bohemian style.
His first great palace reconstruction in Prague had been the
Morzín Palace (today the Romanian Embassy, 1714), his
second the Thun-Hohenstein (Italian Embassy, 1710 20).
During the work on the latter, he adapted the Colloredo Palace
(1715 -- 1718).
The fact that three important works of a major architect
were reconstructions and adaptations rather than original
designs is typical for Prague Baroque in general. The unique
Prague version of Baroque, its subdued and intimate character
which is distinctly different from the exuberance and
monumentality elsewhere, has often puzzled and fascinated art
historians. Wechsberg (The Mystical City) for example is
inclined to blame a mysterious "genius loci" for the unique
changes of this style in Prague, as if the architects had worked
under a spell. One might just as well blame it on prosaic
circumstances. Malá Strana had been a densely built city before
the Battle of White Mountain, a confined area between two
steep hills. Rather than erase the good solid foundations of
Renaissance buildings (which, in turn, were often founded on
Gothic walls), builders tended to reuse these for their own
purposes. Instead of destroying the winding medieval streets,
the new Baroque facades followed the old lines, bending
where necessary. The architects learned to adapt a style most
effective in open spaces to the intimacy of narrow lanes.
In this way, more than being ruled by a given "genius loci,"
Prague Baroque architects contributed to its creation - simply
by the economic utilization of given conditions.
The example of the Colloredo Palace is not the most typical,
because it had enough space, being situated between a
comparatively wide street and a mountain, and enormous
breadth 25
Typical, however, is the gradual process which had already
begun. Five Renaissance houses had been adapted to the
creation of two houses, and now the two houses were again
partly destroyed and partly integrated into a massive early
Baroque palace building, which, in turn, swallowed a
Renaissance malthouse.
The passage had been gradual, and old bends and
incongruities were something Santini had to cope with. The
general outlines, however, were grandiose: A run-down Palace
with three garden wings, topped by a once famous garden
and Gloriette.
According to the old bills of the Estates of Openo
(1715 - 1718), Santini first took care of the things which had to
be done, mainly the repair of mason works. The bill for
"preparation" works and masonry in general amounted to
1893 Guilders (about Kčs 400,000) in the first year. One great
task to be tackled was the main supporting wall which was
25some 100 111.
too weak to withstand the huge pressure of soil from the third
23
garden. The intricately sculptured brick coat we see today
is Santini's work. In 1716 the craftsmen took over: stuccateurs,
carpenters, stone-masons and smiths. The garden terraces
had to be levelled, trees were chopped down. The last
year the work concentrated on carpenter work in the library,
on the roof, and in the stables, mason works in the garden
(including vases and sculptures), and finishing touches in
the building. Five hundred and nine Guilders were paid, of this
amount only 8.50 Guilders for hired labor. We can assume
that the bulk of the unspecialized work was done by laborers
from the Colloredo estates.
Santini razed the bell-shaped towers over the garden tracts
and concentrated on the arrangement and articulation of the
street facade, especially the center part. The west part was
not touched, and the east part was not finished until later
in the century.
We can assume that the Early Baroque facade on the street
was rather plain and ungainly, except for two sculptured
portals and magnificent wooden doors, probably similar to the
still existent west facade. Santini adapted the floors above
the first-floor-level, emphasizing the different height of the
second and third level windows by different ornamentation. The
main accents are set by the comparatively huge slanted
keystones above the second floor windows, extending their
height considerably and thereby shifting the attention from the
dominating horizontal to the vertical. Santini's second
important innovation was the different treatment of the area
above the center portal, including three window axes. This
section is framed by "lisenees" and is slightly more prominent
than the rest of the facade ("risalit"), rising above the top
floor by one story (windows identical to the third level),
crowned by a severe triangular gable. This whole roof
construction, called tympanon, is framed by two round
dormer windows. The exact center of the facade is again
emphasized by a different window, crowned by a round ledge
with a cartouche, carrying the two-tailed Bohemian lion,
the lower part ornamented by a conical balustrade.
To understand the importance of Santini's work, it suffices
to know about these changes: stretching the extreme length of
the palace up to a vertical dimension, and emphasizing the
center, thereby treating the whole unsymmetrical structure
(including the old west and the still unfinished east) as a
palace unit.
The garden front shows the same elements as the street facade,
mainly the elaborate supraports, but here they appear more
superimposed on the Early Baroque facade, without an all-over
design. The garden wings afforded enough variation, and the
function of the garden front became private rather than
26relief-type pillars without base or capital.
representational, after the towers and greater part of the
arcades had been razed. The visitor entering the main gate was
immediately distracted from the building by the view into
the garden. The two atlants²⁷ are deliberately placed on both
sides of the courtyard entrance to create the feeling of
entering a new architectural unit. These monumental statues
are often attributed to Matthias Braun (1684 1738). the best
sculptor of Baroque Prague. But "only the idea is like his,
and the execution is that of an unknown sculptor of no
special ability and conservative plastic conception. **28
It is not possible to determine how deeply the changes
affected the interior of the Palace since we know nothing about
the early Baroque interior. The most obvious Baroque
addition was the main staircase which cut deeply into the
original Renaissance structure of the west center Palace. It has
an almost square ceiling with an inlaid "mirror," framed by
a gracefully curved stucco ledge. This type of stucco work
can be attributed to the Santini period, while the more intricate
stucco ceilings of other rooms (putti, busts and foliage)
are probably of late Baroque (Rococo) origin.
But back to the main staircase. The stairs themselves
go up in four sections and have a right-hand stone railing
with closely-spaced conical supports. Considering the size
and importance of the Colloredo Palace, this is one of the
less ostentatious Baroque staircases, functional rather than
representative, more pleasant than impressive. This noble
restraint, which is typical for the Palace in general, might have
had economic reasons, just like the step-by-step completion,
covering a period of more than 150 years.
The great Baroque palaces in Prague had a very important
social and cultural function. The Great War had left the
ordinary citizens impoverished: wealth and power were almost
exclusively in the hands of the aristocracy. 29 Besides,
culture had always been a privilege of the chosen few, and
the social conditions assured them of this privilege for a
century to come. There were no public theaters, 30 no concert
halls, no art galleries. The houses of the nobility were
designed to cope with their well-understood cultural task:
27 They are often called caryatids, which
is wrong. because that term applies only to
they contained rooms where great art was displayed, ballrooms
female statues.
for music, theater and entertaining. Comfort came last, the
strictly private rooms were often modest and secluded. In
2⁸Kubiček, The Palaces of Prague, p. 134.
these centers of cultural life, people came in touch with
each other, exchanged ideas and enjoyed refined pleasures
This was. of course, true for all the
countries affected by the war.
which only much later became accessible to the masses.
Politically, Prague had become a provincial city, and most
³⁰The "Theater of the Estates" (today Tyl)
of the nobility were employees of the imperial court in
was build by Count Nostitz in 1781.
Vienna. The fact that there was no important business
3/The Holy Roman Empire had all but
carried on in Prague created very favorable conditions for
collapsed, and Austria-Hungary was on
the arts. Also, more and more, common citizens were drawn
its Will.
into the huge bureaucratic machinery, 31 were made nobles in
25
due course, and thereby were able to enter the privileged
circles of the aristocracy in Prague. In the end, the great
palaces became tools on the way to Czech national resurrection,
because they nourished and fostered a movement which was
largely cultural in its origins, and only later in the 19th century
became nationalistic and anti-German. The great Bohemian
scholar, František Palacký, who delivered his famous and
fateful denial of German nationality to the German Federal
Diet in Frankfurt in 1848, spent his early years in the charming
little house "U Ježíška" (No. 203), diagonally opposite
the main gate of the Schoenborn Palace. He was possibly an
occasional visitor to the Schoenborn "salon."
But back to the 18th century. In 1775, the Colloredos sold
their Palace to a new owner: "Today
between his Excellency
the 'Hochgeborenen Herrn' Rudolph von und zu Colloredo,
Count Wallsee of the Holy Roman Empire, Vice Count of Mels
and Margrave of St. Sophia
Colonel and Cup-Bearer in
the Kingdom of Bohemia, Knight of the Golden Fleece, Secret
Counselor of his k.u.k. (Royal and Imperial) Majesty
as a
seller
and the equally 'hochgeborenen (noble-born) Herrn'
Carl Friedrich, the Holy Roman Empire's Count Hatzfeld
(follow other titles), Chamberlain and Imperial Representative
in the Kingdom of Bohemia, as a buyer on the other hand
the following sales contract: the
houses partly entered
into the Estate Register, partly registered in the Malá Strana
and Strahoff Books, including gardens and other accessories,
also the furniture in the houses and the trees
in the garden
in summa, everything as is. "32
The agreed terms were these the selling price was 40,000
Guilders; of this amount Hatzfeld had to make a down payment
of 6,000 Guilders (the rest to follow within one year), and a
"Schluesselgeld" (fee for handing over the keys) of 500 Ducats.
Carl Friedrich von Hatzfeld was an eminent member of the
Austrian-Bohemian nobility. He had purchased the Bohemian
estate of Dlažkovice in 1731 and became a Knight of the Golden
Fleece (one of the highest orders of the Habsburg Empire).
He was President of the Court of Appeals, and became in 1771,
BD2V 591 (translated from the German
Grand Chancellor of Bohemia and Austrian Minister.
original).
His brother, Franz Philipp Adrian von Hatzfeld, had been
awarded the dignity of a prince by King Frederic II of Prussia.
33This strange juxtaposition of honors had
This distinction was extended by Francis I (husband of
something to do with the war between
Prussia and Austria over the 'Pragmatic
Maria Theresa), and Hatzfeld became Imperial Prince in 1748. 33
Sanction' (female succession to the
He was married to Bernardina, born Countess Schoenborn.
Imperial throne). In 1748, Prussia had won
When Carl Friedrich died without an heir, his estates,
possession of Silesia and recognized the
including the Palace, came to his nephew Friedrich Carl, Franz
Habsburg succession. The role Hatzfeld
Philipp's and Bernardina's son.
had played can only be guessed at.
He probably had estates in Silesia, and
The last important building period of the Palace took
Frederic Il had wanted him on his side
place during Carl Friedrich Hatzfeld's ownership. The eastern
during the fight.
part of the Palace, including the former Henkel House and the
malthouse, had been left unfinished. A drawing by F.B. Werner,
executed between 1734 and 1752, shows an unproportioned
segment including parts of high columns. The eastern gate
is just a vaulted entrance, on its left a plain building without
windows and with a triangular gable. 34
An unknown architect undertook the belated task of adapting
this part as a unit of a monumental palace. The Rococo period,
a graceful child of the mighty Baroque, did not invent new
forms, but it was very talented in variations on a great theme.
The Hatzfeld architect did his best to step into Santini's shoes
and succeeded beautifully. It is not impossible that he used
Santini's plans. The only real difference from the center
section is the treatment of the east center (entrance) part
with the tympanon which shows a typical Rococo form: the
"casula" window, so-called because of its similarity with the
priest's chasuble. The "casula" theme is artfully repeated in
the upper ledge of the tympanon. The two framing dormer
windows correspond to the ones of the center section, but they
have (again showing a beautiful sense of balance) a
simpler frame.
The garden facade of the Colloredo-Hatzfeld Palace was
definitely finished by 1769. This was the publication date of
the famous Huber Panorama of Prague. Huber was a high
Austrian officer, and his drawing is "scientifically constructed
auxiliary sketches, composed on the foundation of an accurate
plan of the town. "35 We have to remember that although the
earlier Prague "veduta" are more valuable from an artistic
point of view, they are much less reliable than this "invaluable
topographic performance. "36 A copy of his work can be seen in
the Municipal Museum of Prague, while the original is in the
Vienna National Library. Again, the Colloredo Palace is only
part of a greater panorama, and architectural details are not
visible. But the changes depicted in the garden are interesting.
It was "modernized" during the middle of the 18th century. The
geometrical chessboard configuration had disappeared, and
the strict patterns had given way to more varied landscape
elements. Behind the first terrace balustrade appeared
34 This drawing, which, unfortunately, I was
not able to see, seems to bear an
rectangular "salons de verdure," open-air rooms surrounded by
amazing resemblance to 'The Assault
hedge walls on three sides, open towards the palace, much in
of the Passau Troops' of 1611 (cf. p. 10),
in the manner of doll houses, with the ground covered by
suggesting that no deep change had
carpets of grass. 37 Behind the hedge stood a row of citrus trees,
affected either the malthouse or the
carefully clipped and (considering the climate) probably
Henkel House since that time.
nursed like babies. A row of wedge-shaped "salons de verdure"
35 Wirth, Prague in Pictures
p.
55.
is situated behind the citrus trees, the open side facing the
Palace. A third row of green obscures the view onto the high and
Wirth, ibid.
intricately shaped retaining wall. In the third garden,
The description follows Birnbaumová,
vineyards have given way to a regular orchard, interrupted
since available copies do not enable us to
only by a rectangular, saddle-roofed building (game room?
see single elements so clearly.
stable?) above the eastern part of the wall near the stair house.
27
Only Dietzler (1742) and Huber show this building, and it
disappeared within the next two decades. 38
It is not easy to understand why this interesting garden
never became quite as famous as its early Baroque predecessor.
First of all, the competition became strong. During the middle
of the century, the gardens between the Hradčany and
Valdštejnská ulice (Fuerstenberg, Ledeburg) came into
existence and surpassed the earlier garden as spectacular
examples of late Baroque terrace garden landscaping. The
neighboring Vrtba garden was superior in sculptures (real
Matthias Braun), and the western neighbor (Lobkowitz)
boasted a beautifully curved garden facade. The owners of the
Colloredo Palace were not able to cope with the given
conditions of the terrain any more, and tried to conceal, rather
than take advantage of, the big supporting wall. This fault
continued until the 20th century, and is still evident.
Friedrich Carl, Hatzfeld's nephew and heir, was either not
willing or able to keep the Palace all for himself. In the
Schoenborn Archives in Klatovy there is a lease contract
between Count Hatzfeld and Baron Heinrich von Rotten-Hahn,
"true Chamberlain of his Majesty the Emperor" given August
20th, 1771 39 "His Excellency the Count von Hatzfeld lets his
own house, situated on Vlašská Street, with the exception of
the whole upper floor and the new barn, to
Baron von
Rotten-Hahn with all the rooms, storage-rooms, attic, cellars,
and furniture (chairs, sofas, mirrors, and other equipment,
except pillows, feather-beds, and bed-linen)
for an annual
rent of 1,200 Guilders, to be paid in semi-annual installments
in cash, beginning August 20th, 1773 The landlord keeps
the whole upper floor and the furniture and equipment
belonging to it, as well as the so-called new barn, for his own
use or disposal according to his own deliberation. The landlord
bindingly promises to have the kitchen stove cleaned twice a
month, and to have the other chimneys cleaned once a month
during the winter, and to maintain the windows and doors in
good order. The tenant has to maintain the rooms, utility rooms,
cellars and attic, etc., in the present condition and hand them
over as he got them. The garden is at the disposal of the tenant,
the landlord will pay the gardener for its maintenance."
There are several interesting aspects of this contract.
It indicates that there was only one kitchen stove in the rented
part of the Palace, which illuminates somewhat the rather
doubtful comforts of Baroque living. The number of
chimneys is not mentioned, but we can still count them on the
roof, and it is easy to imagine the winter cold on the stairs,
38cf. Herget plan, 1791.
the hallways, and the great number of unheatable rooms.
39 These Archives are not yet catalogued
But more significant than its details is the fact that such
and not accessible. The text of the contract
a contract existed at all. The great Baroque building period was
was furnished by a friendly student.
definitely over, and the idea of renting a palace instead of
FRE
Malá Strana and Hradcany (circa 1830),
by Vincent Morstadt.
View of Malá Strana and Petrin from
the Castle windows (1812): watercolor
hr J. Isabey.
Agreement
Gardener's cottage, circa 1910.
Franz Kafka and Felice Bauer, shortly
after their second engagement (1917).
buying it became acceptable even for a high court official. 40
At the same time, a nobleman like Hatzfeld could retire from
the world and lead a withdrawn life as a "Privatier."
Baron Heinrich von Rotten-Hahn in his function as Lord High
Burgrave was not only a high but the very highest
administrative official. In the King's absence from Prague
(which was virtually permanent) the Burgrave was his deputy, 41
a position reserved for members of the highest nobility.
After the reign of the enlightened Emperor and King
Joseph II, Prague was treated to two splendid coronations
within two years, Leopold II in 1790 and Francis 11 (as
Bohemian King Francis I) in 1792. The Prague nobility
competed among each other to entertain the new rulers, and on
August 2nd, 1792, the Colloredo Palace had its own night
of Imperial splendor. 42 The Burgrave Heinrich Rotten-Hahn
gave a ball in the "Palace of Franz Philipp Prince von Hatzfeld
and Trachenberg" (his landlord) in the honor of Francis I,
who led the dance together with the Burgrave's second daughter.
40The first apartment building in Prague,
"The high guests dwelled for a long time at the windows to
the Platý= House on Národni třida, was
admire the illumination of the garden.' The author expresses
constructed in 1817.
his doubts whether His Majesty agreed to climb up to the
Il An indication of the importance of this
Gloriette for this purpose, because the celebrations had made
function was the position and size of the
him tired, and he and his entourage left the ball early to rest
Old Burgrave's House on Hradcany
before another day of ceremonies and festivities.
(today House of Czechoslovak Children).
Two years later, the Burgrave's days as a tenant ended.
Novotny Jak Eivot Rrahou sel. p. 198.
Carl Friedrich Hatzfeld died in 1794, and since he had no sons,
his property passed to his uncle, Damian Hugo Ervin
Bef. P. 26.
Schoenborn, a brother of Franz Philipp's wife, Bernardina. 43
The Schoenborn Palace
The Schoenborns descended from an old German family in
(1794-1919)
the Westerwald (Rhineland). Their political genius, combined
with considerable fertility, made them one of the most far-flung
and important South-German/Austrian noble families. It
is almost impossible to list the titles and powers held by them:
Electors and Archbishops in Mainz, Bishops in Wuerzburg,
Bamberg, Speyer and Konstanz, Cardinals, Ministers. In 1710,
the Bishop of Vienna-Neustadt awarded the Schoenborn family
with the hereditary Electorate for Upper and Lower Austria.
Hugo Damian Ervin Schoenborn (1738 - 1817) was Imperial
Chamberlain and Privy Councellor, Knight of the Order of
St. Joseph and honorary Maltese Knight. He established
himself in Bohemia with the purchase of the estate Příchovice
near Klatovy in 1784, and ten years later, he inherited this
Palace in Prague as well as the Hatzfeld estates Dolni Lukavice
near Pilsen and Dlažkovice in Northern Bohemia.
71)
During Hugo Damian's ownership. the Palace was visited by
another building commission. The short report from 1816
gives us a general idea about the number and designation of the
inhabitable rooms. The house is divided into two parts.
Part I:
Ground floor:
1 room, 1 kitchen, 2 vaulted rooms,
1 laundry room
Second floor:
6 rooms, 1 chamber, 1 kitchen,
1 vaulted room
Third floor:
5 rooms, 1 chamber, 1 vaulted room,
1 kitchen
Part II: Ground floor:
8 rooms, 2 kitchens, 3 rooms for the
coachman, stable for 15 horses,
garden house with 1 room and
I kitchen
Second floor:
14 rooms, 1 kitchen
Third floor:
18 rooms
It is difficult to determine into what kind of "parts"
the Palace is divided; the most logical explanation is the still
used division into "old" and "new" Palace, Part I
being the old with very limited living space, the second being
the new with the living quarters of the family. The mentioned
stable for 15 horses was the one in the basement of the east
wing. Puzzling is the reference to the garden house on the
ground floor level. It was probably a lean-to structure in the
east courtyard. All through the 19th century, such make-shift
additions to the Palace existed : woodsheds, chicken houses, etc.,
and we can assume that their usefulness exceeded their beauty.
The total number of rooms listed is 69, some 31 less
than the Palace has today. One reason for the smaller number
was the later subdivisions of huge halls into smaller rooms. 44
After 1816, the facade of the "old" palace was finally adapted
to the same roof level as the new; for this purpose, a new
half-story was added. Isabey's "View from the Castle on the
North Petrín Hill," 1812, is the only drawing which shows
the former irregularity of the old facade. In order to get a clearer
picture of the interior layout which remained more or less
constant through the 19th century we have to consult another
building report made out in 1881. The most important
changes after 1817 took place in the west center wing,
which had not been finished before. 45 In 1832, a spiral staircase
was built to connect the second and third stories of this wing
(these wooden stairs still existed in 1928). The new staircase
behind the main stairs was built between 1853 and 1855,
An example is the second floor of the
connecting the entrance of the main cellar with the attic.
west center wing which contained one big
room. The adaptation of this wing was
After 1817, a stable for six horses was established in the ground
not finished before 1862.
floor (garden end), and equipped with marble feeding
troughs. The rest of the ground floor (adjoining the house)
45cf. footnote 44.
contained kitchen and pantries.
In general, the ground floor of the Palace was used for
utility rooms: about ten kitchens with adjoining pantries,
laundry rooms (main laundry room - today commissary), one
ironing room, stables (the old stable for 15 horses was later
used for wood storage), archives, and a shed for carriages
(today garage). The main kitchen (situated by the east
courtyard, today men's dressing room) was connected to the
underlying cellar by a spiral staircase. The cellar had an
"ice" section for the cooling of food (one of three). Above
the kitchen in the second floor, pantry and dining room were
conveniently located. Some time later, a dumb-waiter was
installed as a direct connection between kitchen and pantry
above. Only three apartments were mentioned on the ground
level: the coachman's next to the new stable, and left
and right of the main gate the gate keeper's and the Palace
manager's.
The mezzanine contained servants' quarters, and, in the
east center wing, a special vaulted heating chamber. The
situation of this chamber is not clear, and it is the only
one mentioned. This forerunner of central heating probably
served to take the chill out of the living room floors in
the second (family) story.
The second story, especially of the "new" part, contained
representational and living quarters. The main stairs of
course, were reserved for the family members and their visitors.
Adjoining the stairs on the street side were the library (today
visa waiting room) and an anteroom (reception). The little
hall and adjoining cubicle (today toilet) were connected to a
speaking tube leading to the main entrance. On the street side
above the main entrance was a "salon with balcony" and the
ballroom (today consular offices), on the garden side the
mentioned dining room, and in the east center wing the private
rooms of the count: a study, a billiard room, small salon and
the garden salon "with Italian fireplace and jalousies"
(Ambassador's office). Appropriately, the west center wing
contained the private quarters of the countess: a dressing
room with adjoining cubicle which contained the entrance to
the spiral staircase, bedroom and study, and two garden salons,
the larger one with access to the garden.
It is not possible to determine the use of the other rooms.
The east end of the street front contained more salons, a
bedroom and a cabinet with an "Italian fireplace." The use
of the top floor, which was in many parts not even finished
(parquet floors, dividing walls, ceilings, etc.) can only be
46 The Prague Address Book of 1859 lists
guessed. It probably contained nurseries, rooms for the
three. the one of 1910 five different
parties inhabiting the Palace, including
"higher" servants (governess, tutors, housekeeper, etc.) and
two single ladies, either widows or
private quarters for the lesser members of the family. A
unmarried. All parties, however, were
palace of that size was hardly ever a one-family house. 40
Schoenborns.
It would be a mistake to assume that a large staff of
21
jurisprudence like Friedrich and became 'Landesgerichtsrat'
(Council of the State Court). Like his brothers, he was a lifelong
member of the Upper House in the Czech parliament.
By the turn of the century, the Prague nobility still held
their high positions in the administration, and their huge
estates secured them a handsome income. But the foundations
of the Hungarian-Austrian Empire began to sway, and with
them the official position of a class which was traditionally
dependent on the crown. The Habsburg state was resented by
the Czechs not only because it was foreign, but also because
its basic feudal organization made it difficult for a normal
citizen to partake in the government of his own state. "A
Viennese citizen is a lot closer to my heart than 1000
aristocrats!" a Brno revolutionary had written in 1848. The
immense proportion of land held by the nobility did not
help to appease these feelings. Very often the nobility were
not even able to take care of their estates properly. Depending
on the land for their private income, the old families were not
able to invest enough to make them truly profitable, let alone
to make room for the industries which had become essential to
feed the masses. If for no other reason, the traditional life
of the aristocracy was doomed by the Industrial Revolution.
Even before the first land reforms of the new Czechoslovak
Republic led to the confiscation of a large part of the
aristocratic estates, thereby ending the socially important role of
the nobility, many of the old families lacked the means as well
as the incentive to maintain a huge palace all for themselves.
After 1910, the Schoenborns took in paying tenants, members of
their own impoverished class, but also (in the less
representative parts of the house) a rather mixed lot of poor
people. Many parts of Malá Strana became virtual slums in the
early 20th century, a curious Prague mixture of rich and
poor, noble and common, dirty and elegant ---- a breeding
ground for originals as Neruda depicted them in his
short stories.
Still, the Schoenborns held on to their own way of life.
I would like to take you on a little excursion into the third
garden of the Schoenborn Palace. The year was 1970, and I had
met Pani B. for the first time. She is about 80 years old, and
she had not seen this piece of land for more than 60 years.
She was born in 1892 in the gardener's cottage not far from the
gate leading into the Lobkowitz garden. "My father was the
Schoenborn's head gardener," she told me in her fine and
halting German (she had not spoken it for years and had
difficulties finding the right word now and then): "He was
taking care of the terrace gardens farther down, and in
exchange he got a lease on this property up to the Gloriette.
There were lots of flowers, and the way from our house to the
workshed by the stairs was always framed by flowers." I could
After this excursion into building history, let us return
to the Schoenborns. Damian Hugo Schoenborn died in 1817,
and his Bohemian estates went to his third son, Friedrich Karl.
Friedrich married a Princess Lobkowitz and such brought
another vast estate, Nekmir, into the family. He died as
"His k.u.k. Majesty's True Privy Councellor and Chamberlain"
in 1849, one year after the first bourgeois revolution" had
shaken the foundations of the feudal order in Germany and
Bohemia. Friedrich Karl was replaced by his son Ervin
(1812 -- 1881) as head of the Bohemian "Fideikommiss" (entail).
Ervin was an active member of the Czech parliament from
1861 - 1867, supporting, of course, the conservative party.
His estates included Lukavice, Klažkovice, Příchovice,
Přeštice, Malešice, Kozolupy and Nekmir. His wife was born
Bruehl and followed the Schoenborn tradition in bearing him
eight children. Nothing is known about the oldest son, Karl
Friedrich, except that he, like his grandfather, married a
Lobkowitz, and after her early death another distinguished
aristocratic lady, Zdeňka Carolina von Sternberg.
His younger brother Friedrich (born 1841 in Dlažkovice)
was the one to carry on the family tradition as the heir of
the entail. He studied law at Charles University and became
a Dr. juris. In 1879, he was a candidate for the Austrian
Imperial Council, and one year later he became a member of the
State Court, and shortly after that Vice Regent of Moravia.
On November 13, 1888, he was made Minister of Justice in the
Taaf Cabinet (Hungary-Austria). In 1890, he published several
decrees concerning the Main Regional Court in Prague which
were considered anti-Czech. 50 After Taaf resigned as Minister
President, Schoenborn joined the Windischgraetz Cabinet,
but he fell along with the whole coalition. Shortly after, he
became President of the Administrative Court in Prague.
Friedrich Schoenborn was an immensely learned man and
published articles in literary magazines as well as in professional
papers; moreover, he was an excellent speaker and the
political leader of the aristocracy. His honorary distinctions
were staggering. He was Imperial Chamberlain and Privy
Counsellor, Knight of the Iron Cross 1st Class, Knight of the
Great Cross of the Order of Leopold, Knight of the Great Cross
of the Order of Franz Joseph I, Knight of the Russian Order
of St. Anna 1st Class, Honorary Knight of the Order of the
Johannites, and bearer of the Great Cross of the Legion
⁵⁰Czech language experts could learn
d'Honneur.
more about this affair by reading "A
Friedrich's younger brother Franz (1844 - 1899) entered,
Proposal for the Indictment of J.E. Count
also true to family tradition, a career in the clergy. He
Bedrich Schoenborn, Minister of
took part in the Austrian-Prussian war of 1866, studied in
Justice, and Action taken about this
Proposal in the Imperial Court" (title
Rome and Innsbruck, and was ordained in 1873. In 1885, he
translated from Czech), University
became Prince Archbishop in Prague and four years later
Library No. 54K 12.491.
Cardinal. Ervin's youngest son, Adalbert Joseph, studied
33
and plenty of space made life in such a palace very comfortable,
let alone luxurious. Karl Anton Prince Rohan, who grew up
in a classicistic palace on Karmelitská, writes in his Memoirs:
"The return of the household to the city was an event which
caused a week long commotion. A stable of horses, countless
suitcases and trunks, the family members, governesses
and tutors, coachmen, stable hands, servants, chamber maids,
maids, cooks, kitchen hands, not counting the cleaning staff
which had gone in advance to clean and prepare the house
Such a description could make the impression as if we
lived in 'Saus and Braus.' But the housekeeping was not out of
proportion, because the houses we lived in were comparatively
primitive. Hardly a bath, few water-flushed toilets, no central
heating, ice cold hallways, no elevators. The heating of such
a palace alone required several full-time servants for wood
chopping, carrying of coals, cleaning of the ovens and
fireplaces, and heating. Without exaggeration one could say
that life in such a house, even with a large staff of servants,
was not more comfortable, rather harder in many ways than
the life of an upper-middle-class family in a modern, technically
equipped apartment with one maid. "47
The garden had changed again in the early 19th century. 48
This was the time when formal gardens went out of fashion. The
romantic period discovered "real" nature, and the great
"English" parks with their carefully distributed trees, winding
trails and spacious lawns were composed. They mirrored
"nature," but went to great troubles to eliminate natural faults.
In fact, to nurture this illusion, the "English" gardens
demanded about as much care as the formal ones had. The
Schoenborns followed the new fashion without giving much
thought to the fact that it was utterly unsuited to an artificially
arranged terrace garden. From the beginning there had been
a logical division between the two lower "formal" terraces
and the utility garden above the big supporting wall
(with just one formal strip through the center up to the
Gloriette to please the eye). Now the lower two terraces were
47 Herzogenberg. Prag. P. 142 f., freely
adapted to "nature," too. Winding trails destroyed the
Translated from the German.
symmetrical layout of the former flower beds and hedges, which
were replaced by irregular lawns and scattered trees. The
28cf. Juettner, Plan of Prague 1811 15.
sculptured supporting walls were disguised by exuberantly
growing evergreen. In short, the garden was spoiled and never
19/11 fairness, it should he pointed out that,
in the McNayr plans of 1928. there
recovered from this operation.
existed a detailed plan to restore the
In addition to the living quarters of the gardener's helper
formal gardens. The plan had more
adjoining the stairhouse in the third garden, and the head
similarity to a millionaire's dream than to
gardener's cottage near the Lobkowitz gate, the third garden
the original Italian garden. The center
of the first terrace would have featured
contained a large greenhouse (by the stairs), a vaulted
" huge lily pond. and an abundance of
cellar for vegetable storage (opposite the stairs), and several
marble stairs was to lead up to the second
glass-covered vegetable beds with an adjoining (underground?)
terrace.
heating chamber.
see that she was not impressed by what she saw now. "You
know, before I was born, in his best days, he had a lot of people
working under him. But then the Schoenborns were poor. and
he was the only one. Painters used to come up and ask for
permission to work up here, and in return we usually got a
nice drawing or painting." There is an old photograph
showing Pani B. as a stiff and lovely little girl in front of the
Gloriette. "At one time, there was a whole family living
in there, can you imagine?"⁵
I asked her what she remembered about the Schoenborns.
"Well, we children were not allowed to go down. At that
time, there was a little thruway leading from our house to
Vlašská Street. 52 But now and then, we would sneak down
anyway, and if we saw the Old Lady (probably Friedrich's wife,
mother of Carl Johann) we would run up to her and kiss her
hand. The way she said it, it didn't even sound degrading.
When the Old Lady died, she was lying in state in her big
garden salon, and all the employees, including the gate
keeper in his magnificent uniform and great blue two-cornered
hat, came to pay their last respects. The latter was usually
defending the gate against intruders, or announcing visitors
by pounding his long guilded staff. The visiting hours among
the aristocracy were ruled by a very strict etiquette as to
who could visit whom and when, although almost all of them
were close relatives.
I asked Paní B. what it felt like to be "under the old
aristocracy" and whether there was any resentment. She did
not quite understand me. "Resentment? Why? Their life was
not easier than ours, probably more difficult. They started
their days very early to attend the six o'clock mass in the
Theatiner Church in the Spornergasse (today Nerudova), only
on Sundays in St. Thomas. The young Countess did not know
where to get the money to buy new clothes for her children.
She used to visit the Countess Lobkowitz (a relative, of
course) and ask her for the things her children had outgrown.
But not a single time were the Schoenborns late in paying
their servants, and they always contributed to charities."
The Count's children would constantly sneak up to the
gardener's cottage to get a good hearty breakfast. The Old
511 really could not, but became somewhat
Lady (who, according to Paní B's references, ran the household)
accustomed to the idea. In 1969. the Admin.
would insist - be it for economical reasons or to keep
Officer discovered traces of somebody
spending his nights in the Gloriette.
the children fashionably thin - that an apple for breakfast was
including a diary. which pointed to a
enough. "There are also enough romantic stories for a novel,
romantic young poet.
and one of 'them' wrote one: "Under the Roofs of St.
Nicholas' 53 But don't believe everything it says. One of the
52cf. P. 36.
Schoenborns fell madly in love with a Countess Lobkowitz
'nfortunately. / WITH not able to trace
but they were both married. So the writer maintains he shot
the author. let alone " copy. 11 might be
himself right here in the garden." Paní B. was very amused.
worth looking for.
"The truth is, he shot himself somewhere else."
25
The Schoenborn gardener was able to provide his daughter
with a good education. He sent her to a nun's school in Malá
Strana ("Englische Fraeulein") where she learned all the skills
required of a young lady. When she was seventeen, her father got
into a disagreement with the Palace manager and had to leave.
That was in the same year in which the Great War had
toppled the old world and the Czechoslovak Republic was
proclaimed. "It's funny, I haven't been here since that time.
It was my childhood, and that was over." Pani B. later married
a high official in the Masaryk government and led quite
an exciting life. "But for me, this is where my memories are,
and they go back here more and more the older I become."
This was my only real encounter with the Schoenborn Palace.
If the Palace had a ghost, Franz Kafka would be a very
appropriate one. His characters are forever caught in the
labyrinth of totalitarian bureaucracy, and much of his work
seems today like an accurate prophecy of things to come. He
occupied two rooms in the Schoenborn Palace for a few months
in 1917, and wrote there (among other things) his short story
"The Building of the Chinese Wall.' This tale about a futile wall
erected by convicts might have been inspired by the "Hunger
Wall," the equally senseless fortification close by on the
Petřín Hill, erected under Charles IV during a famine to keep
unemployed workers from starving.
In a letter to his fiancee Felice Bauer, written early in
1917, Kafka tells about his worries finding a suitable place to
live. "I went into a housing bureau, where, almost immediately,
I was told about a flat in one of the most beautiful palaces.
Two rooms, an anteroom, one half of which was outfitted as a
bathroom. Six hundred crowns a year. It was like the
fulfillment of a dream. I went there. Rooms high and beautiful,
red and gold, almost like in Versailles. 54 Four windows
overlooking a completely hidden quiet courtyard, one window
onto the garden. What a garden When you enter the gate
of the Palace you can hardly believe what you see. Through
the high arch of the second gate, flanked by caryatids, you see
the garden sloping slowly and majestically from a beautifully
divided branched stone stairway up to a Gloriette. But the
flat had a little flaw. The former tenant, a young man living
separated from his wife, had lived in it with his servant only
for a few months. had then suddenly been transferred (he is a
government employee), had to leave Prague, but had already
invested so much in the flat during this short period that he did
not want to give it up just like that. He kept it and looked for
somebody who would at least partially compensate him (for
54 This was by no means an exaggeration.
Most of the second floor rooms had their
introduction of electric light, furnishing of the bathroom,
walls covered by damask. It was probably
built-in closets, installation of a telephone, a large carpet
never renewed. faded. and was finally
hung on the wall) I was not this somebody. He wanted
forn out.
(certainly not too much) six hundred and fifty crowns. It was
WITH
a
-3;
HERE
Main entrance
Garrison accompanied by a Marine Guard, climbed up and told
them in fluent Russian : "These apples are American apples
and you better leave them." One of the soldiers muttered
an apology, and back they climbed over the wall.
While the diplomats, after a few more symbolic actions,
returned to their daily tasks, the administrators succeeded,
slowly but steadily, in making the old Baroque palace once
more a good and solid place to live and work in. There is
a long way to go to the lily pond, but desuetude and cracked
walls are things past. The most pleasant and visible sign is
the renovated Gloriette, over which the American flag is
raised every morning, a patch of stars and stripes in lonely
isolation. Many friends of the Embassy have remarked how
comforting it is to take in the magnificent view from
Prague Castle and to see, every day, the American flag flying
from its customary place. One likes to think that the flag
symbolizes the nature of American-Czechoslovak friendship,
which like the Schoenborn Palace itself goes through
good times and bad, but always endures.
44
STREET
ad
naus
"
too much for me, also the exaggeratedly high cold rooms were
too luxurious for my taste: after all, I didn't have any
furniture either. There were smaller considerations added to
that. However, in the same castle there was another flat,
to be rented directly from the palace management: in the third
story, slightly lower ceilings, view onto a narrow street, the
Hradcany close in front of the windows. Friendlier, more
human, modestly furnished - a young countess had lived
there as a guest, probably with fairly modest standards.
The decor of period furniture, appropriate for a young girl. was
still there. I was doubtful whether the apartment was still
available. That made me desperate at the time."
Kafka then moved into a little house his favorite sister
Ottla had rented for her own convenience in the Zlatá ulice
(Golden Lane), a place he liked because of the complete privacy
it offered, also because he had to walk home to his parents'
home every night (in the Old Town), an exercise which helped to
cure his insomnia. In the meantime, he kept pondering on the
reasons for and against renting the palace apartment.
"Just now it is clear that the flat is available after all.
the manager for whom I did a favor likes me. I get it for six
hundred, but without the furniture I counted on. There are two
rooms and an anteroom. Electric lights are installed, but no
bathroom, no tub, well, I don't need that
I
would
have
to
borrow furniture from my sister; for the one room which is huge
I would only have a bed I would not have the nightly walk
home, and it would be difficult to go for a walk at night
because the (Palace) door can't be unlocked from the outside.
On the other hand, I could walk around at night in the garden
normally reserved for the noble family We two would have
the best apartment I could imagine in Prague prepared for you,
if only for a short time, and you would have to do without
your own kitchen, even without a bathroom
The
indescribable park, let's say in spring, summer (the noble
family is gone) 55 or fall. But if I don't secure the flat for myself
right now, either by moving in or (an irrational waste
surmounting any bureaucratic concept) just by paying one
hundred and fifty crowns for a quarter year, I would lose it.
Judge for yourself, and soon. "56
This endless pondering on all possible solutions and
objections was very typical for Kafka and rendered him all but
helpless in his private affairs. He did move in, finally. The
fact that his rooms could not be heated during the cold period
55Nobody in the nobility would stay in the
probably speeded up his final and fatal ailment, tuberculosis.
city during the summer, of course. but
After the first hemorrhage occurred, he had to move out again,
retire to one of the country estates.
this time to a sanatorium. "And so I leave," he wrote his sister
56 Excerpts from Max Brod: Kafka.
Ottla. "Closing the windows in the Palace for the last time,
locking the door, how similar that must be to dying. "57 Kafka
"Kafka und Prag. P. 144.
died seven years later, in 1924. in a sanatorium
Carl Johann Schoenborn, the last owner of the Palace before
it became the American Legation, was Chief Administrator
for the Kingdom of Bohemia. After the Republic had been
proclaimed, he sold the Palace to Richard Crane, but he and his
family kept a large part of the third floor for several years.
He was a very pious man, and his family life was dictated
by a rigid schedule. 58 He got up very early and visited the
6 o'clock mass alone, then again the 7 o'clock mass together
with his children. Breakfast was served at 7:30, for the children
"milk coffee with bread crumbed in and a little sugar.'
Butter was considered a luxury. The household included
three servants, three maids, cooks and a tutor. At 8:30
Schoenborn went to his office and returned at 5:30 in the
evening. After the children (twin boys, girls are not mentioned)
outgrew private tutoring, they were sent to a Czech school.
After the sixth grade, they changed to a German Gymnasium
"to learn German." Every night, the children had to spend
a certain time at their mother's desk to "search their souls."
The Count himself would run up and down praying his
rosary. Schoenborn mentions in his letter that the American
Minister Einstein, having his salon under the Schoenborns,
knowingly connected any wild swinging of the chandeliers
with the Count's rosary.
Erwein, one of the twin brothers, later became one of
the Prague originals. They called him the "Folding Count,"
because he walked the streets much in the manner of a folding
umbrella. Being very tall and feeling rather unimportant, he
would bend over excessively until he met somebody familiar
and rose out of his depth like a happy umbrella meeting
the rain. According to a reliable source, he possessed six or
seven umbrellas, all of them - he claimed --- valuable, and all
of them broken. Until 1968, he worked in an antiquariat on
Karlová ulice. He knew a lot about books, but was not very
interested in selling them. He refused to see any customers
before 11 o'clock when he took his first Cinzano. The Count
was very fond of tall stories. In his letter he rather
gleefully reports that he made an American diplomat in Prague
actually believe that 6,000,000 eggs were used to mix the
mortar for the Palace.
58The following information was supplied
by Erwein Schoenborn who was kind
enough to write me " long letter
(April 2. 1972).
The American Legation
After the Republic of Czechoslovakia had been proclaimed,
(1919-1939)
Prague became once more a capital of an independent state.
The old noble families became normal citizens in a democratic
society, deprived of the official functions they had held for
centuries. The palaces of Malá Strana were ideally suited
to house foreign legations, and most of the former owners were
happy to rent or sell them. Ironically, in this way they
regained the representative function they had already lost in
the 19th century.
Richard Crane was well prepared for his job as the first
Minister of the newly established American Legation in Prague.
His father, the owner of the Crane Plumbing Manufacturing Co.
in Chicago, was not only a millionaire but an active
Slavophile. He had endowed the School of Slavonic Studies
in Chicago, and was fond of the Czechs "at a time when this
was so unusual as to be eccentric. "59 In 1902, he visited
Prague and invited Professor T.G. Masaryk to give lectures in
Chicago. In fact, Crane played an important role in the
founding of the Czechoslovak Republic. He not only helped
Masaryk to get in touch with the Slavic communities in the
U.S. Midwest, but also gained him access to President Wilson
in order to win the President's support for the new state.
The Pittsburgh Treaty between the Czechs and the Slovaks laid
the foundation for the Czechoslovak Republic.
It was only natural that the son of Masaryk's only close
friend in America should become the first American Minister in
Prague. The connection was even sealed by a marriage,
short and unhappy as it was, between Richard's sister Frances
Crane Leatherbee and Jan Masaryk, the President's son.
Richard Crane had sufficient means to purchase the
Schoenborn Palace from Carl Johann Schoenborn for the
price of $117,000. This might seem like a fairy tale today, but
in reality had many prosaic elements. The Palace was run down
in all but the representational rooms. It had lots of tenants
crowded together under not altogether sanitary conditions.
Of the hundred-odd rooms of the Palace, about 80 were rented,
33 by members of the Schoenborn family.
After Richard Crane returned to Washington, he offered
the Palace to the United States Government, which bought it for
the Legation in 1924 for $125,000. Since, under the existing
conditions, there was hardly enough room to house two
employees, let alone an extensive office, the tenant problem
became immediately one of the most urgent ones. Any
diplomat coming to Prague should consider the reading of a
59 Davenport, Too Strong for Fantasy, 266.
records book entitled "Correspondence, Einstein, 1925''60
as an absolute must, if only to destroy any illusions about
60 vailable only on special request.
the good old days. Einstein, the new Minister, was not only an
Somebody with a good sense for historic
value reseued this invaluable volume
able diplomat but a master of style as well. In a letter to
from destruction.
Beneš, the Foreign Minister, he explained the difficulties:
39
"The United States
is naturally desirous of utilizing
to the fullest possible extent the resources of this property
for official purposes, such, for instance, as the housing of
the Consulate and Commercial Attache's offices and of the
staffs of American government agencies in Prague. The presence
of some 40 tenants, whose leases antedated the acquisition of
the property by the United States has so far prevented (this)
the eviction of these tenants is under present law exceedingly
difficult, if not impossible, and my government, despite
its purchase of the entire property finds itself unable to
exercise the most important rights of possession over some
two-thirds of the Legation building. The situation is
unfortunately aggravated by the activities of certain of the
tenants, one of whom maintains a stable beneath the Chancery
while another lives, in a manner which I trust Your
Excellency will permit me to characterize as primitive rather
than decorous, beneath the apartment of the minister. The
children of the tenants are under scant control; spirit lamps are
in general use, and this, as well as the stable beneath the
Chancery, cannot but constitute a fire risk to which
I am reluctantly constrained to invite Your Excellency's
attention
More outspoken in his letters to the Department of State,
Einstein reports that, on hot days, "when the wind sits wrong,"
he has to smoke violently and keep the windows closed in order
to escape the stench from the manure pit. Attempts to evict
the livery stable on sanitary grounds were futile. An examiner
dispatched by the City Medical Department found the stable
well kept and clean, the manure pit only half full (however, with
collapsing walls), and reached the academic decision that
displeasure with such an establishment was understandable
but merely a matter of private taste.
Einstein's ordeal was not only caused by the stable, but
also by "two families of 'fiances' and their babies who reside
in one room situated immediately under my own principal living
room. The smoke from their cooking at times make the latter
uninhabitable, while their taste of gramophone selections is
not my own. But after more than three years' effort I have
not yet succeeded in dispossessing them." At one point during
this critical year, the American Legation came very close to
having the Venezuelan flag and shield being raised on its
premises. Mr. Faul, Crane's agent in Prague, had accepted an
appointment as Venezuelan Consul while living in the Palace.
He was tactful enough to inquire about the desirability of
such an action, and this interesting complication was avoided,
not without a heartfelt verbal shudder by Mr. Einstein.
There was an attractive plan to convert the "old" Palace
into an American institute for Slavic studies, designed to
give scholars the opportunity to conduct research in the
suitable atmosphere of an old Slavic capital. Like so many
others, this brainchild was stillborn.
The records after 1925 are destroyed or in the National
Archives in Washington, but according to the extensive plans
for renovating the Palace in 1928, the tenant problem must
have been solved earlier. 61 Many of the 1928 McNayr plans
were never realised. They called for the total rebuilding
of walls and roofs, landscaping of the gardens, 62 razing of
the west wing obscuring an early Baroque wall, a concrete
foundation under the courtyard cobblestones and complete
reconstruction of the sagging terrace stairs, etc., including
new furniture for the entire Legation. The total costs for
this project amounted to $200,000, a sum not readily available
out of the rather modest budget of the State Department at
that time. 63 We can assume that there was relatively smooth
sailing from then on. But the days of the Czechoslovak
Republic were numbered, and with them the functioning of the
American Legation. One of the last American diplomats
assigned to Prague before World War II was another master of
style, George F. Kennan. He arrived "by the last regular
airplane ever to go from Paris to the 1918 - 1938
Czechoslovakia. "64 It was the day of the Munich Agreement.
"In view of the blackout and the evacuation of dependents,
I found all the male staff residing in the residence quarters of the
Legation. Both Chancery and Residence were at that time
installed in the Schoenborn Palace The Legation Chancery
and the Residence quarters for the Minister occupied only
a small portion of the building, the remainder being left in a
state of desuetude. The residential quarters alone contained, in
addition to several bedrooms, at least three, and I think
four, huge salons."
Kennan recalls the story of that curious egg-shaped
monument mercifully buried among bushes during the summer
⁶¹Only the eastern part of the second floor
on the first terrace, not far from the Ambassador's office
remained in the possession of Mr. Crane,
which, at that time, was the Minister's private salon: It was
who had " lease contract until 1945.
the top structure of a concrete air raid shelter, "As I recall it,
His younger brother, John Oliver Crane,
continued to live in the Schoenborn
the only shelter of this sort to be completed for any of our
Palace during the twenties and thirties.
diplomatic missions in Europe before the outbreak of war. It
is an eloquent commentary on the difficulty of foresight in
⁶²cf. Footnote No. 49.
international affairs that not only was this he first of our
diplomatic premises to be abandoned - abandoned, in fact,
3 Again, it is useful to refer to
before the war had really begun and long before any bombs
"Correspondence, Einstein. The total
allowances for the Legation in 1925
began to fall ---- but that Prague itself was almost the only
amounted to $4,000. Consider the haggle
European Capital to escape any serious measure of aerial
over surplus rulers and scissors in that
destruction." Kennan pays an eloquent tribute to Wilbur
year in order to get the right perspective.
J. Carr, the last American Minister to pre-war Czechoslovakia:
This and the following quotes taken from:
Quiet, dignified, affable; thoroughly schooled in all the
George F. Kennan, Memoirs
intricacies of governmental and diplomatic procedure;
1925 1950. Atlantic. Little, Brown. 1967.
accustomed to the frustrations of governmental routine and
skilled in the arts of patience and of quiet persuasion by which
alone that routine could be successfully assailed, and yet
astute in his treatment of junior personnel."
One of the most outstanding passages in Kennan's book deals
with a special encounter with Mr. Carr: I waited long
and vainly, in my bedroom, for the usual call to dinner from the
butler. Finally, wondering what had happened. I ventured into
the great salons. There, in the brightly lighted room, I came
upon the Minister peacefully sleeping in an armchair. The
servants stood respectfully behind the curtains of the dining
room, not daring to wake him. The sight of the old gentleman,
thus peacefully at rest in the solitary splendor of his heavily
curtained salons while outside in the growing darkness a Europe
seething with fear and hatred danced its death dance all around
us, struck me as a symbolic enactment of the helplessness
of all forces of order and decency, at that moment, in the
face of the demonic powers that history had not unleashed."
Kennan also recalls an annoying and rather familiar incident.
A powerful father had decided to send his son on a European
fact-finding tour, including Czechoslovakia. "That busy
people should have their time taken up arranging this tour
struck us as outrageous. With that polite but weary
punctiliousness that characterizes diplomatic officials required
to busy themselves with pesky compatriots who insist on
visiting places where they have no business to be, I arranged
to get him through the German lines, had him escorted to
Prague, saw to it that he was shown what he wanted to see.
expedited his departure, then, with a feeling of 'that's that',
washed my hands of him - as I thought." The young
John F. Kennedy was one of the last official visitors the
Legation had to worry about. When the Germans marched into
Prague in early spring, 1939, the Legation was formally
abolished.
American Embassy
The Germans never occupied the building, which stayed
(1946-present)
under care of the Swiss Legation. But, of course, this care did not
include maintenance and the "desuetude" had reached
formidable dimensions by the time the Americans returned
after the war. Once more there was a lot of horse manure, left by
temporarily stationed "guests," and the old part of the
Palace was literally bursting at the seams. The building walls
had to be pulled together by four giant steel scissors which
gradually pulled the cracks together. The facade, which had
turned pitchblack, got a thorough scrubbing, and the
42
Gloriette was renovated. At that time, the building inspector
discovered a secret passageway in the main cellar. There were
rumors that this tunnel actually led to the Hradčany. but
it was too dangerous to be explored and was finally sealed
off by a concrete wall.
Compared to the small pre-war staff of the Legation, the
new American Embassy was an immensely inflated operation.
There were more than one hundred Americans and countless
local employees. Ambassador Laurence Steinhardt preferred
to change his residence to the Petschek villa, first leased and
then bought by the American Government. Marcia Davenport,
recalling the last Fourth of July party before the Communists
took over. takes a dim view of this choice: "It was unbearably
hot. The party was held in the garden of the monstrously
vulgar millionaire's villa, the Petschek house whose owners had
fled at the time of Munich
to me an incomprehensible
preference over the noble beauty of the Schoenborn Palace
which is the American Embassy's chancery. "65
At that time, the Embassy was actually engaged in
negotiations with the Foreign Ministry to change the chancery
to an altogether different location. Jan Masaryk, a good friend
of Steinhardt, had offered him a huge building site on the
Letna Hill for a new chancery. When the Communists took over,
the plan was, of course, dropped, and the staff was cut down
by 75%. Finally only 12 Americans remained. Steinhardt,
by nature a very practical man, had shared Masaryk's belief that
it would be possible to hold Czechoslovakia in a "bridge"
position between east and west. Masaryk survived his
shattered dream only a few months.
During the next 20 years, while the diplomats tried to
operate as normal as possible under cold war conditions,
the administrative staff waged an equally intense struggle
to keep the hundred-room Palace from crumbling away.
In 1968, during the Warsaw Pact occupation of
Czechoslovakia, the Schoenborn Palace came very close to
burning. While the night curfew was enforced by Russian tanks
and nobody was allowed to leave or enter the Embassy,
a fire broke out under the roof. Women and children huddled
in a miserable group in the courtyard, watching the male staff
fighting the blaze with pails of water. Finally and
miraculously, after several hours, they succeeded. The inside
1968 story of the American Embassy is not yet written, and
probably never will be. But since this story dealt with the
Schoenborn Palace, the famous garden should not be forgotten
in the last chapter.
A few Russian soldiers had climbed the wall behind the
third garden and found the American apples very delicious.
After all, this was the time when the Czechs refused them
bread and water. Politely asked to leave, they refused.
65 Davenport, ibid, p. 333.
The situation became very tense until First Secretary Mark
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Garrison accompanied by a Marine Guard, climbed up and told
them in fluent Russian : "These apples are American apples
and you better leave them." One of the soldiers muttered
an apology, and back they climbed over the wall.
While the diplomats, after a few more symbolic actions,
returned to their daily tasks, the administrators succeeded,
slowly but steadily, in making the old Baroque palace once
more a good and solid place to live and work in. There is
a long way to go to the lily pond, but desuetude and cracked
walls are things past. The most pleasant and visible sign is
the renovated Gloriette, over which the American flag is
raised every morning, a patch of stars and stripes in lonely
isolation. Many friends of the Embassy have remarked how
comforting it is to take in the magnificent view from
Prague Castle and to see, every day, the American flag flying
from its customary place. One likes to think that the flag
symbolizes the nature of American-Czechoslovak friendship,
which like the Schoenborn Palace itself goes through
good times and bad, but always endures.
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