In the middle of the 18th century, a Rococo palace with a beautiful white-and-pink facade appeared on Old Town Square, instantly becoming a new landmark of the city.
This building was constructed according to the design of architect Lurago for Count Goltz, after whose death the house was bought by another well-known Prague family - the Kinskys, who lived here until 1945.
The Goltz-Kinsky Palace is associated with several events important for Czechia. It was here that Bertha von Suttner was born in 1843 - the baroness who became the first female Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
There was a time when the palace housed a German grammar school, and it was during that period that Franz Kafka studied here, while his father owned a small trading kiosk on the first floor of the building.
In 1942, Klement Gottwald announced from the palace balcony to the crowd gathered on Old Town Square that the era of communism had begun in Czechia. Less than fifty years later, from that very same balcony, President of Czechoslovakia Vaclav Havel would officially announce to the jubilant gathering of townspeople the end of the communist era.
Today, the Kinsky Palace houses the National Gallery's collection of prints and drawings.
