National Gallery Prague

The National Gallery Prague (Czech: Národní galerie Praha, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (Národní galerie v Praze), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Czech and international fine art in permanent and temporary exhibitions.

The collections of the gallery are not housed in a single building, but are presented in a number of historic structures within the city of Prague, as well as other places.

Founded in 1796, it is one of the world's oldest public art galleries and one of the largest museums in Central Europe.

The history of the National Gallery dates back to the end of the 18th century (namely February 5, 1796[2]), when a group of prominent representatives of Bohemian patriotic aristocracy (Kolowrat, Sternberg, Nostitz) and middle-class intellectuals decided to elevate what they called the "debased artistic taste" of the local population.

In 1995 new spaces dedicated to 19th- and 20th-century art were opened in the refurbished Veletržní Palác (Trade Fair Palace), itself a national monument as Prague's largest functionalist building and one of the earliest examples of that architectural style in the city (construction began in 1925).

Šternberk Palace at Hradčany
The atrium in Veletržní palác.