To spot Oetting Palace, look for a light peach-colored building with elegant decorative windows and two archways at the base, sitting right ahead of you on Josefská street.
Alright, you’re standing before the illustrious Oetting Palace-though for much of its life, it’s had an identity crisis, sometimes called Lobkowicz House, depending on the century! The palace before you has a past as twisty as Prague’s alleys, stretching all the way back to 1406. Imagine standing here in the Middle Ages, catching the smell of fresh-cut meat, because at one time there was a slaughterhouse on this very spot-nothing like a palace and a steakhouse rolled into one, right? After a great fire and a series of not-so-friendly neighborhood husite uprisings, the original house was destroyed, but the tale didn’t end!
In 1548, Ladislav of Lobkowicz decided this would be the perfect plot for his Renaissance palace-complete with hidden passageways and a secret corridor to the church of St. Thomas next door. Imagine sneaking through in the middle of the night when you didn’t want to be seen! Years rolled on. There was a dramatic blaze in 1723, and the Lobkowicz family called in Prague’s top architect to resurrect their palace bigger and baroque-ier than ever.
Fast forward to a brisk purchase in 1841 by Prince Oettingen-Wallerstein, and voilà-the name you see now. As if it hadn’t had enough facelifts, the palace got a fresh neoclassical wing in 1887, and later, Prague’s inquisitive students filled the halls when it became a gymnasium. Can you picture all the restless young scholars bustling in the cobbled courtyard, maybe daring each other to peek inside the “haunted” baroque stables?
Today, Oetting Palace is home to the Czech Chamber of Architects-a fitting destiny for a place whose every brick tells a story in style. So next time someone says their house has good bones, just tell them about this palace: Renaissance bones, baroque skin, and a neoclassical wardrobe!
