In 1871, Baron Jan Schebek commissioned the construction of a magnificent palace of sandstone and marble. The three storied building, which stands to this day, was designed by the architect Ignac Ullman as a small-scale replica of the Palace of Versailles. A marble staircase leads to the former public rooms, and painted scenes from Olympus, symbols representing the Arts and Sciences, and the signs of the Zodiac decorate the ceiling over the gallery. The paintings of the Ten Lunettes by Victor Barvitius, in which the artist depicted the history of Schebek’s ancestors, adorn the largest room.
Later the palace was sold to the Austro Hungarian Bank. In 1918, after the founding of the First Republic (independent Czechoslovakia), the building was a natural location for the State Bank of Czechoslovakia to establish its headquarters. In room 6 (today’s Salon de Venus), the governor’s meetings were held.
In 1963, the building was transferred to the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, as the headquarters of its Institute of Economics.
Today, the Schebek Palace is occupied by CERGE EI (Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute), a joint workplace of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The two institutes are proud that their work is continuing the building’s traditional role of being a center for economics education in the Czech Republic and the Central and Eastern Europe region as a whole.