Hartig Palace Prague

In Thunovská Street in Malá Strana stands a three-storey house, No. 183/18, known by its owners as the Šelmberský, Salmovský or Hartigovský Palace. In the second half of the 14th century, the site was probably occupied by the residence of Beneš of Kravaře, from whom the Bishop of Litomyšl purchased the property as a residence for himself and his successors. The house was burned to the ground during the Hussite Revolution, and it was not until a good half-century later that the king entrusted the bishop's house and the neighbouring house to the highest chancellor, Jan of Šelmberk, who turned them into an integral whole. At the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, the complex was united with the newly built Smyslovský House, and it was probably then that it acquired its uniform early Baroque façade. After many noble families (including the Trčkas, the Berks of Dubá, the Hartigs and the Malovcs of Malovice), in 1881 the ownership rights were registered to the Hlavatý couple (and then to Marie Maternová in 1891), and the house was adapted for family living – the families of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Teréza Nováková also lived here. After 1907, reconstruction began for monastic purposes, and at the end of 1921, further reconstruction took place for the embassy. The house took on its present form and served as the seat of the German embassy throughout the pre-war period. After World War II, it housed the Red Cross, and today the house is part of the TTP Invest Investment Group, which carried out a comprehensive reconstruction.