Prague, Czech Republic, October 4-7, 2017

Social Program

Click here to view gallery of Troja Chateau

On Friday, October 6, 2017 a Gala evening will be held at the Troja Chateau in Prague. The evening will be opened with a reception, followed by concert with orchestra and soloists and continue with Conference Banquet.

The Troja Chateau is considered of the most important architectural works of the beginning of Late Baroque in Central Europe. In areas where vineyards were once located, Count Václav Vojtěch from Šternberk had the chateau built in 1678 to successfully obtain a title of nobility.

The chateau's form resembles a type of an Italian suburban villa, it is therefore a summer residence rather than a chateau. The villa was also to serve as a residence and resting place of the emperor and his retinue while hunting in Stromovka, the nearby game enclosure. Outstanding European artists were invited to the construction and decoration of the chateau. The project under the Italian influence was designed by Jean Baptiste Mathey, a French origin architect, who changed the original concept to regular disposition with grand hall in the center.

Giovanni Domenico Orsi de Orsini, renowned Prague architect, started the construction and his disciple Slivestro Carloni lead it for a few initial years. Despite his extensive experience the architect Mathey was not allowed to lead the construction himself, for he had not been trained in the mason's guild, which was against the then valid regulations.

The premises of the ground floor served as a background for the servants and in the basement there was a spacious wine cellar. A single-wing stables and a coach house with two-storied pavilions had been built by the wall in the northern courtyard of the complex. The construction was completed in 1689 and the villa was honored by the Emperor's visit when in 1702 Count Šternberk received the Emperor Leopold I.