Romanesque Bishop's Palace

The Romanesque Bishop's Palace is one of the most important Romanesque residential buildings in Europe. This building was the residence of Olomouc Bishop Jindřich Zdík, one of the most important figures in Czech history of the 12th century. His education and frequent contacts with influential circles abroad, gave him a broad cultural and political overview. His spiritual outlook enabled him to carry out many daring plans, such as the introduction of the Premonstratensian Order into the Czech lands. Bishop Zdík was also an art lover. From his trips abroad he brought back many excellent sculptors, stonemasons and illuminators, who created admirable works for him in Olomouc.

Let us return to the palace itself, whose model we see before us. The origin of the residence is related to the construction of the church of St. Wenceslas in the 12th century. Bishop Zdík built a palace in the neighbourhood of the church, joining the smaller cloister with a rectangular ground plan and a house designed for the priests. In 1141 the bishop permanently resettled here together with twelve canons. The architecture of the residence had no equal in the 12th century Czech lands. The bishop's palace had a rectangular floor plan. The ground floor served as an administrative building. The first floor, where we are now, served as a reception area and the bishop's private residence.

The original floor was lower than the footbridge we are now standing on. It now rests on the gothic vault of the cloister, which was built here after the fires almost two centuries after the death of the original builder, bishop Zdík.

On the walls we can occasionally see scratched inscriptions and small pictures, which are not the works of modern vandals, but medieval schoolchildren, because part of the palace also served as a school.