Schwarzenberg Palace Prague

Sporting a beautifully preserved facade of black-and-white Renaissance sgraffito, the Schwarzenberg Palace houses the National Gallery’s collection of baroque art. Sadly, a lot of the paintings are poorly lit and suffer from reflections from nearby windows – a shame, as the inside of the palace itself is less impressive than the outside, and the collection is really only of interest to aficionados. The ground floor is given over to two masters of baroque sculpture, Matthias Braun and Maximilian Brokof, whose overwrought figures appear to have been caught in a hurricane, such is the liveliness of their billowing robes. The highlights of the 1st floor are the moody 16th-century portraits by Petr Brandl and Jan Kupecký, while the top floor boasts a display of engravings by Albrecht Dürer.