Primate`s Palace and six tapestries

The Primate's Palace, considered to be the most beautiful Classicist building in Bratislava, was built by the Archbishop and Cardinal Jozef Batthyany after the design of the architect Melchior Hefele in 1778.

The palace and its famous Hall of Mirrors became the scene of many major historic events. The Peace Treaty of Pressburg between Austria and France was signed there in 1805, the opening session of the Hungarian Parliament, which had its seat in the present building of the University Library, took place there as well.

The city bought the palace in August 1903. During reconstruction of the palace, a series of six unknown tapestries was found folded behind wallpaper, depicting the ancient legend of Hero and Leander, illustrating their tragic love.

The tapestries were woven in the 1630s in the royal weaving workshop at Mortlake near London, run by the Dutch Phillip de Maecht. The designs and tapestries created by Franz Cleyn reflect Flemish and partially Italian painting from the period of Mannerism.

Apart from English tapestries, the grand halls of the Primate's Palace show several smaller exhibitions of paintings from the collections of the City Gallery of Bratislava - a collection of 17th century Dutch and Flemish genre painting and the exhibition of 16th and 17th century Italian painting.