My primary reason for visiting the Prague Royal Castle in June 2019 was to view this room - the Defenestration Room. It was in this very chamber, on Wednesday 23 May 1618, that a defiant act by a group of angry Bohemian nobles sparked the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War (1618 – 1648).
The now infamous Defenestration Room occupies the second uppermost story within the Ludwig Wing (Ludvíkovo křídlo), which was added to the Royal Prague Castle between 1485 and 1503. It was certainly not constructed for the prince of the same name, as Ludvík Jagellonský was not born until 1506.
His father, Vladislav II Jagellonský (1471 – 1516), also King of Hungary from 1490, presumably had the wing planned as additional living apartments for his family and servants during his visits from Hungary to Prague. It was designed as a five-storey building - 3 floors were originally residential, 2 storeys cellars.
Later, the 4th floor became the offices of the Bohemian chancellery, and it was the second main room of the wing that witnessed the throwing out of its window two Catholic royal chancellors and their scribe by Protestant Bohemian estates' aristocracy. All three survived their fall of 16m (50 ft) into the dry moat and escaped further pistol shots fired from the open window.
The last photograph above shows the Defenestration room on the far left of the wing, along the middle row of windows.