News

Discover Schebek Palace During the Open House Festival

25 April, 2018

For the first time, CERGE-EI will join the Open House Festival, and open its premises to the public for the whole weekend of May 19-20. The second floor with its marble staircase, antique furniture, parquet floors and extravagant rugs, fabric walls, bejeweled ceilings, chandeliers, and stunning painted ceilings all await to be discovered by the festival audience. 

This international festival was established 26 years ago in Lodon to enhance public dialog with architects, the city council and its public spaces. Nowadays, it “invites everyone to explore and debate the value of a well-designed and built environment“, with 41 cities worldwide participating in the project. We will be opening up the 2nd floor of Schebek Palace for those who would like to explore its premises.

Schebek Palace has a long history dating back to the times of King Charles IV in the 14th century. At the time, it was the first and only building in the street. It belonged to several aristocrats, but after a 1757 fire it served as a convent-hospital, and later an orphanage, and free-masons lodge. The palace as it is today was built in the mid-19th century, with the intention to design a small-scale replica of the Palace of Versailles. In 1890, the palace was sold to the Austro-Hungarian bank (and later transferred to the State Bank of Czechoslovakia). In 1963, the building was transferred to the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, as the seat of its Institute of Economics. Today, CERGE-EI proudly calls the palace home.