Palffy Palace

Several members of the Pálffy family had their own palace in Bratislava. The site of their palace on Úri Street has a very interesting historical past. Excavations conducted here between 1981-87 found, among other things, traces of a Celtic settlement (1st century BC), scattered Roman finds and Slavic graves from the 9th-10th centuries. It was determined that the earliest period of the building standing here dates back to the Árpád era, the beginning of the 13th century. Traces of a Gothic palace with a chapel from the 15th century were found on the basement and ground floors of the building. After the restoration, some of its elements were exhibited, so they can still be seen today. ; The two-story, gable-roofed, street-facing house, rebuilt in a closed row in the 17th-18th centuries, was the seat of Bratislava County and the venue for county assemblies. When the county seat moved elsewhere in the mid-1850s, the Count Pálffy family, who held the title of hereditary lord of Bratislava County, remodeled the house in the late classicist style, creating its present appearance. "The palace of Count János Pálffy contains valuable art treasures, mainly paintings by famous Italian and Dutch masters." (Ortvay T.) ; The building, following its reconstruction in the 1980s, houses the Bratislava City Gallery.