overview opening hours about the place The Industrial Palace is an icon of the Prague Exhibition Grounds and one of the most important works of late 19th-century Czech architecture. It was built for the General Jubilee Exhibition of 1891 to a design by architect Bedřich Münzberger and engineer František Prášil, as the first large-scale prefabricated steel-and-glass structure of its kind in the Czech lands. The monumental building combines technical innovation with rich decoration, stained glass, and Neo-Baroque and Art Nouveau features. Following a devastating fire in 2008, which completely destroyed the building’s left wing, the palace underwent extensive reconstruction, with the missing wing rebuilt on the basis of historical documentation. The restored landmark of the Exhibition Grounds thus continues its long tradition as a venue for exhibitions, trade fairs, cultural events and social occasions. opening hours open during public events more about opening hours Related leisure centres Prague Exhibition Grounds Holešovice opening hours open during public events history The Industrial Palace was built in 1891 for the General Jubilee Exhibition following plans drafted by Czech architect Bedřich Münzberger. Influenced himself by a younger generation of architects inspired by the 1889 Paris Exposition and its pioneering engineering structures, including the Eiffel Tower, Münzberger designed what was, for its time, an extraordinary combination of masonry architecture and iron construction. Modern structural elements are combined with classical Neo-Baroque forms and Art Nouveau features. The palace is dominated by an extensively glazed steel structure, complemented by masonry façades and four tower-like pylons at the corners of the central section. Above it rises a roof dome, while at the centre stands a clock tower with a spiral staircase. The tower rises to a height of 51 metres. It originally also had a viewing platform, which was open to the public for a fee. The monumental hall in the central section of the palace measures 65 × 45 metres. Its steel arches rise to a height of 25 metres and span 38 metres. A gallery with loggias runs around the perimeter and is accessed by staircases in the corner towers. The iron structure was designed and erected in just five months by the First Czech-Moravian Machine Works Kolben-Daněk in Prague, with a workforce of 150 fitters. The side façades were embellished with figurative windows depicting allegories of Industry and Science, made from golden-yellow cathedral glass and designed by Mikoláš Aleš. The palace dome was crowned by a large replica of the royal crown and cross, inspired by the Crown of St Wenceslas. Statues of Emperors Leopold II and Franz Joseph I stood in two niches in the main façade. (Decorations referring to the monarchy were removed during the First Czechoslovak Republic.) The exterior decoration of the masonry sections, with their historicist ornamentation, was designed by Bedřich Ohmann in 1891 and supplemented by Alois Dryák in 1899. The interior was designed by architect Josef Fanta. The palace was officially opened in March 1891 and, on 15 May that year, became one of the principal venues of the General Jubilee Exhibition. The palace underwent extensive reconstruction between 1952 and 1954 following a design drawn up by Pavel Smetana. New vaulting and a painted coffered ceiling were added, together with an entrance extension built to host congresses of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. During this period, the building was renamed the Congress Palace (1948—1990), while its steel tower was decorated with a red star and the letters PKOJF, an abbreviation of the complex’s then name, the Julius Fučík Park of Culture and Recreation. A major fire engulfed the Industrial Palace on 16 October 2008, completely destroying its left wing. The central hall and right wing, however, remained intact. Restoration of this important Art Nouveau monument moved into the construction phase in 2022. VPÚ Deco supplied the project documentation, while the architectural design was produced by SGL Projekt. The restoration of the Industrial Palace included comprehensive renovation of the surviving building and the reconstruction of the destroyed left wing, including the addition of a basement. Externally, the rebuilt left wing is a copy of the right wing, while its interior was restored to its 1891 appearance, with the riveted steel structure and timber roof trusses left exposed. The coat of arms and the gilded Crown of St Wenceslas were restored to the façade. Embossed clock faces approximately 2.7 metres in diameter, among the largest in Prague, were returned to the central tower. L. Hainz restored them to their original sheet-metal design with gold Roman numerals. The extensive restoration also included the painted ceiling of the main nave, preservation of the ribbed ceiling installed in the right wing in the 1950s, and reconstruction of the stained-glass windows, which consist of 107,700 pieces of coloured glass set in lead frames. Together, they cover an impressive 2,256 square metres. Reopening of the Industrial Palace: September 2026.