This magnificent Georgian building hosts the oldest surviving piece of Waterford Crystal in the world dating back to 1789, the only surviving Napoleon Bonaparte ‘mourning cross’, which was one of twelve produced upon his death in 1821 and the fantastic 4D Masterpieces in Glass exhibition tracing the story of glass making in the city from the 1700’s.

The Bishop’s Palace displays the treasures of Georgian and Victorian Waterford.  The ground and first floors are laid out as a historic house with some of the finest displays in Ireland of 18th century glass, silver, furniture and paintings. The top floor continues the story up to 1970 ending with the Hucklebuck shoes.

The present Palace, built on the site of several previous palaces, was commissioned by Bishop Charles Este in 1743 to the design of Richard Cassel.  Este’s premature death in 1745 and Cassel’s in 1750 led to the Palace being completed by the Waterford architect-builder ‘Honest’ John Roberts, who built so many of Waterford’s fine buildings in the 1700s.

The Palace is a fine Palladian building faced on both sides in Leinster limestone. It functioned as the residence of the Anglican bishops of Waterford from 1743 to 1919, becoming then the boarding school of the Bishop Foy School until 1967 when it was acquired by Waterford City Council for offices until 2010.