By Jan Velinger
October 1, 2019
Charles University reopened Millesimovský Palace in Celetná Street to great anticipation on Monday, after the building was largely covered by scaffolding and under renovation for more than one year.
Finance Minister Alena Schillerová and Charles University Rector Tomáš Zima. Photo: Vladimír Šigut.
Among those who took part in the launch was the country’s finance minister, Alena Schillerová, numerous guests, and university officials.
At the launch, Rector Tomáš Zima recalled the building’s past as a gambling venue and luxury restaurant for the nobility in the 19th century; it came into the keeping of the university fairly late: only in the 1990s after the fall of communism in the former Czechoslovakia.
The building – which underwent an extensive transformation in the Baroque period in 1756 – still features details preserved from its Gothic past (notably, two former windows and alcoves in one of the classrooms). While some rooms will serve for lectures and lessons, the palace is also the site of the school’s information and advisory services (UK Point). On the upper floor, there will also be a study space for students and a library.
The palace’s courtyard, meanwhile, boasts an impressive modern glass roof making it accessible rain or shine. The oldest renovated chambers are Romanesque cellars that can be used all year round, most likely for exhibitions, said university Vice-Rector Jan Royt, who gave a tour of the premises.
Renovation of the Millesimovský Palace cost 180 million crowns.