The Princely Collections
One of the most significant family collections in Europe, the Lobkowicz Collections are comprised of paintings, decorative arts, original musical scores and instruments, an extensive library of rare books and archives, and important arms and armor, spanning seven centuries of art and music patronage.
The new, permanent exhibition entitled The Princely Collections is housed in the Lobkowicz Palace at Prague Castle and opened to the public on April 2, 2007. This unique and dynamic installation dramatically expands the family's efforts to restore additional rare objects and make this extraordinary heritage of the Czech nation even more accessible to local and international audiences.
Highlights of the works exhibited at this outstanding location, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, includes the jewels of the old master paintings, namely two world-renowned views of London by Canaletto, The River Thames on Lord Mayor's Day and The River Thames with Westminster Bridge, both painted in the late 1740's, and Haymaking by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1565). Portraiture from the largest collection of 16th century Spanish paintings outside of Spain and Austria is now on view at Prague Castle in a display of family and dynastic portraits reflecting innumerable connections between the courts of Prague, Madrid and Vienna.
The Lobkowicz Princes' exceptional patronage of composers, most notably Beethoven, are illuminated by an installation of the family's most important musical manuscripts and instruments. The best examples of the extraordinarily diverse and vast ceramics collection, dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries, are also on display. An armory, containing one of the finest and rarest collections of firearms in Central Europe, is featured in two rooms. These pieces, resplendent works of art in their own right, are displayed together for the first time in a single magnificent setting.
This is by far the most ambitious endeavor that the Lobkowicz family has undertaken in the sixteen years they have spent preserving, protecting and making accessible their unique cultural heritage in the Czech Republic. In concept with the considerable educational programs already available at Nelahozeves Castle - opened to the public by President Václav Havel in 1997 - and the ongoing display of the Collections there, this major project revitalizes an important cultural site in the heart of Europe by increasing public access to some of the world's greatest works of art.