Place — Tyrš House

Prague, Czech Repub­lic, Europe.

The meet­ing will take place in the his­toric build­ing Tyrš House in the very cen­tre of Prague. In the imme­di­ate vicin­i­ty of pic­turesque Kam­pa at Vlta­va river.

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History of the Tyrš House

Since 1921, Tyrš House, also known more his­tor­i­cal­ly as Mich­na Palace, was owned by the Czechoslo­vak Sokol Vil­lage, an impor­tant nation­al-ori­en­tat­ed phys­i­cal-edu­ca­tion organization.

The Sokol was found­ed by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügn­er in 1862 as the first phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion orga­ni­za­tion in the Aus­tro – Hun­gar­i­an empire at a time of polit­i­cal free­dom in the 1860´s.

Mich­na Palace is in the Less­er Town of Prague and makes a part of Tyrš House.

This ear­ly baroque palace is one of the largest palaces in Prague.

There is a Muse­um of Phys­i­cal Cul­ture and Sports inside and also rep­re­sen­ta­tive and social premis­es suit­able for social events of any size.

The his­to­ry of this build­ing is inter­est­ing. At the end of the 16th cen­tu­ry, in the place of a con­vent of Domini­can nuns, count Jan Kin­ský (Jan Vchyn­ský of Vchyn­ice, Kar­lštein bur­grave) had a renais­sance sub­ur­ban sum­mer palace built. The prob­a­ble author of the palace was archi­tect Ottavio Aostal­lio. Over the course of years the build­ing changed sev­er­al aris­to­crat­ic own­ers. Each of them made some build­ing modifications.

In 1623, it was bought by aris­to­crat Pavel Mich­na of Vacínov, who, with his son had it turned into a rep­re­sen­ta­tive baroque palace. The author of this recon­struc­tion was super­vised by Ital­ian archi­tects Francesco Car­rati and Pietro Colom­bo in the style of 16th cen­tu­ry Roman palaces.

In the sec­ond half of the17th cen­tu­ry the palace changed its own­er. New own­er was Jan Sitzen­dorf and then it was obtained by Jan Adolf Schwarzen­berg. But in 1763, the palace was sold by the Schwarzen­bergs to Jan Born­schein. Then he sold it to the army admin­is­tra­tion. Dur­ing the next 150 years, the build­ing start­ed to decay.

Then in 1921 the ruins were bought by the Sokol and it start­ed addi­tion­al recon­struc­tion. In an announced con­test for recon­struc­tion the project of archi­tect Krás­ný won.

Dress­ing rooms, a gym­na­si­um, and a large Sokol’s lodg­ing house were built there. Under the gym­na­si­um there is a swim­ming pool 20 metres long.

The for­mer baroque palace was recon­struct­ed into a mod­ern gym­nas­tic and social insti­tu­tion and bears the name of the Sokol founder Miroslav Tyrš. The stat­ue of Miroslav Tyrš made by sculp­tor Šaloun was unveiled in 1926 in the first courtyard.
After Feb­ru­ary putsch in 1948, the Sokol was destroyed, and the place was turned into the Insti­tute of Phys­i­cal Edu­ca­tion. After Novem­ber 1989 Tyrš House was giv­en back to the Czech Sokol Village.