Michna Palace

Michna Palace or also the Palace of Michna from Vacínov, newly known as Tyršův dům, is a pretentious Baroque palace, located in the south part of the Lesser Town, on the borderline of Újezd and Karmelitská Street. Nowadays, it is a residency of The Sokol Movement and of Faculty of the Physical Education and Sport of Charles University.

At the end of the 16th century, a Renaissance folly was originally built here, whose owners changed quite often and each one of them made various construction works and additional changes. The folly therefore turned into a Renaissance villa with a large garden, which became a property of an imperial courtly official, Paul Michna from Vacínov, in 1623. He rebuilt the villa completely in the Baroque style and turned it into a huge palace. In the second half of the 17th century, it was purchased by the Schwarzenbergs and from the second half of the 18th century the palace was used by the army, up to the end of the First World War, when it was classified as a ruin, due to its poor state. In 1923, the ruins of Michna Palace were purchased from the City of Prague by The Sokol Movement and the palace was rebuilt into its current state.

Michna Palace has already hosted the World Chess Champions Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, the best female chess-player of all times Judit Polgár, the chess legends Vlastimil Hort, Lubomír Kaválek and Jan Smejkal and many more world GMs during the ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2013 festival.