Power lends art its rooms

The Governor's Palace has performed authority in several costumes. The complex began as an Augustinian monastery beside the Church of St Thomas, was rebuilt in Baroque form and later served secular government. It now houses part of the Moravian Gallery. Each change alters the meaning of the same courtyard, corridors and ceremonial rooms: disciplined religious life, provincial administration and public culture do not use space in identical ways, even when the walls survive. Pause before the entrance and look for the stone figure of Margrave Jobst supporting it. Museums often appear neutral, but this one enters through architecture already saturated with church and state power. Who becomes more legitimate here: the palace, or the art?