Ornamental decoration and small-scale architecture have been an important part of the gardens in Prague since the Renaissance. However, the works of art have been gradually removed from gardens. Having been exposed to the vagaries of weather and other influences for decades, many of them were irretrievably destroyed or had to be replaced by copies. Those that were saved are stored in Prague City Gallery’s depositories.
What can you find in Troja?
The exhibits include stone fountains with figures of the Nereids and dolphins directly from Troja Château, found in the 1980s during the reconstruction of the château and its gardens; original sculptures from Vrtbovská Garden; a statue of a group of Chinese people from the landscape park Cibulka, probably by famous sculptor Václav Prachner; and Braun’s sculptures from Villa Portheimka.
Original exhibits from the Vrtbovská Garden
The Vrtbovská Garden, a baroque gem on the site of a former vineyard, where some valuable exhibits come from, is an Italian style garden belonging to Vrtbovský Palace in Prague’s Lesser Town (Malá Strana).
Jan Josef, Count of Vrtba, had the most famous and expensive architects and artists such as František Maxmilián Kaňka and Kryštof Dientzenhofer, construct the garden. Painterly decoration was entrusted to Václav Vavřinec Reiner, and sculptures were ordered from the most important Czech representative of the High Baroque sculpture, Matthias Bernard Braun.
The Count carefully arranged all the artwork in a way that visitors to the garden could admire individual scenes as a theatrical performance without words. The exhibits from the Vrtbovská Garden include Braun’s sculpture ‘Fighting boys’ (‘Peroucí se chlapci’), and the statues of Aphrodite and Adonis.
For further information, please visit: http://en.ghmp.cz/.