Troja Palace

Garrett Lambur
The Troja Palace was a very interesting place to visit. I had no preconceived notion of what to expect other than a Palace of some sort but as I have learned on our travels through out Europe combined with my own, a palace can be any type of living space. The Troja Palace was quite amazing on the outside; I enjoyed the architecture and the color of the building. The gardens were not what I would truly want for my own back yard but I have a different desire than they would have in their time, enjoyment versus prestige. A part of me was disappointed that we did not get to see the gardens during the spring or summer, or even fall because I feel that nature can be one of the greatest pieces of art in the world. Similarly to this, I feel there can be no greater place to generate a connection with God then in nature. But back to the Troja Palace, the inside was different from what I expected. Most of the artwork did not strike any particular chord within me, the dogs were just pictures of dogs and some of the other works were just works. There were however good works too that I did enjoy and it is to be expected to not enjoy every piece of art in a museum or exhibit. One of my favorite works was the wall size one of the defenestration of Prague. There was something about the different men in the picture and the expressions on their faces that explained the event incredibly well. The man about to be thrown out the window had a great expression on his face of just “Nooooo!” while the other man being dragged toward the window expression was one of terror. Perhaps one of the reason’s I enjoyed the picture so much was because of the realism of it all. I am not stating that I enjoy realism over other works of art but there was something about the realism within this picture that struck a chord in me. As for the artwork on the ceiling, as impressive as it was, none of it appealed to me. It was strange however to see change from Christian subjects to Greek subjects, it came across to me as a strange conglomeration of the different subjects, even though they have been related to each other through history. I guess I was just expecting the painter to pick one subject and stick with this one through out the entire building, apparently I was wrong.