Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic

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Great Hall

 

A Great Hall on the first floor was a central ceremonial space of baroque mansions and palaces. It was the same in the Czernin Palace. Excerpt churches, the Great Hall of the Czernin Palace was the largest room in Prague until the 19th century.


 

It was never emblazoned and remained completely austere in its appearance. Architect Dominico Egidio Rossi designed a rich illusive painting of architecture for the Great Hall in 1690s. Architect František Maxmilián Kaňka proposed a project based on monumental frescos of Prague painter Václav Vavřinec Reiner in 1719. Both project were refused by Czernins because of the lack of financial means. During the biggest devastation of the Czernin Palace in the 19th century, the Great Hall was used as a shooting range by the city guard. Later it was divided into several floors and a number of small rooms. Separating walls were removed in the 1920s during the reconstruction of the palace and the Great Hall was restored to its original size. The Great Hall has been used as the main representative room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since. Conferences and annual meetings of Czech ambassadors have been holding there. The Great Hall is the very place where treaty disestablishing the Warsaw Pact was signed on July 1, 1991.

 

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