Prague’s Lobkowicz Palace museum is perfect for a genealogist.
I loved it while visiting in April, 2018.
The story itself charms.
The Lobkowicz family, princes of Bohemia for five hundred years, lost the castle and fabulous art holdings to the Nazis during World War II.
They regained everything, including all eleven castles, at the end of the war.
But then lost it all again to the Soviets.
In 1992, with the fall of the Iron Curtain, they regained their possessions.
Castles and palaces are expensive to maintain.
William Lobkowicz, a graduate of Harvard University about my age, sold off most of the castles.
He used the proceeds to restore the art and offer this splendid museum to all interested.
A family palace
I know all this because I donned headphones and stood before photos of the last three family owners while William told the story.
Alone in the corridor, I looked up when a door opened and a man entered the hallway.
I looked between him and the photo on the wall and grinned.
William himself!
He kindly waved back and continued on this way.
What a friendly museum owner!
(I took all the photos in this blog post as I wandered through the museum).
Lobkowicz family stories
What I loved about the museum narration were the personal stories about the paintings.
One in particular surprised me. As Prince William Lobkowicz explained in my ears:
“Examine the rings on the finger of this woman. The small ring on her pinky is one my mother wears on special occasions.”
Of course people would wear their family’s jewels. I’ve seen articles about the Queen of England’s tiaras in both real life and family portraits.
I marveled to hear someone who seemed as normal as me, recounting such a tale!
The “Margarita Teresa Infanta” at the top is a famous painting by Velázques. The second Prince of the House of Lobkowicz worked for her husband (once she grew up and married).
And doesn’t everyone have a Madonna and child painting in their household?
This family’s version was painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder–who usually painted portraits of Martin Luther and friends!
Even the family pets!
The museum devoted an entire room to paintings of the family’s dogs.
Notice this painting includes the dogs’ names!
We’ve got clarinets at our house!
I’m the clarinetist in my family, but we only own one wooden clarinet, now 50 years old.
One of my favorite pieces of music is Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A.
It turns out the Lobkowicz family helped finance Mozart during his (continual) years of poverty.
A painting of Wolfgang hung in the music room.
We share something in common with the Lobkowicz family.
Here’s their copy of an original score–written in George Handel’s hand–for The Messiah.
From my genealogy research, I know I’m related to the Jennings family who gave Handel room and board while he wrote The Messiah.
While not patrons of the arts at the same level with the princely house, at least we have a connection!
See why I enjoyed my visit to the museum so much?
Why would I start my tour of Prague here?
Lunch on the terrace was splendid (especially the lemonade) and the views were spectacular!
That’s the Charles Bridge crossing to old town Prague.
The Lobkowicz Palace Museum presents the story of Prague’s last 500 years against the backdrop of a living family.
Even if you’re not a genealogist–especially if you’re an art-lover–this is a splendid museum with a terrific story.
It begs an important question: would you want to be a prince or princess with a family art collection like this?
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