THE OFFICIAL SEAT

The official seat of the Judicial Council of the Slovak republic is since 2016 the Palace of Vicegerency in Bratislava. This historical building consists of three above-ground floors, cellar and attic. It has a plan of an irregular quadrilateral with two internal atriums. It is situated on the corner of the Main and Františkánske Square in Bratislava. It is a baroque building that was built up in the second half of the 18th century by the merging of two houses that were originally standing alone. The original construction of houses in this part of the city dates back to the 14th and 15th centuries. The purpose of such construction was an urban development of the city to the east and in connection with the immigration wave of German craftsmen and traders to Pressburg. According to historical sources, traders and wine-growers were the first owners and inhabitants of that houses. Over the next centuries there were several changes made to the buildings. The biggest building modifications were made in the 18th century. In the first half of the 18th century, Baron Georg Paluska was gradually buying individual parts of the first house. Since 1728, this object is considered as the seat of the local County Council (Consilium haus, Stadthalterey). In the second half of the 18th century, the seat of the County Council was extended by merging to the second house  and then it was re-builded. This Palace gained its current form and current floor plan. In this Palace, the local County council met until the end of the 18th century when Emperor Joseph II. decides to transfer  offices to Budín. After this step, the city decided to place the City Guard in the empty the Palace of Vicegerency. In the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century, the financial offices were based here, and by the middle of the 20th century, the Palace was the official seat of the Institute for the Study of People's Nutrition. In the 90s of the 20th century, the Palace of Vicegerency underwent a complete reconstruction and served for representative purpose of the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic. Multiple redevelopments and rebuilding of this Palace over the centuries have also been reflected in the architectural features of the building. We can find Gothic and Renaissance vaults and baroque elements of the architecture. The interior of the building is richly decorated by paintings. The main entrance to the building from the Main Square consists of a baroque pillar portal with a semicircular archivolt. During the last reconstruction, the original side entrance to the Palace from Františkánský Square with an entrance portal similar to the main entrance was restored.