Baroque architecture
succeeds Renaissance architecture. If harmony, rationality characterize the
Renaissance style, Baroque wants to impress and uses the monumental, dynamic
optical effects, omnipresent illusion to do so. Prague Baroque architecture
belongs to the most famous expressions of European Baroque. In Prague, Baroque
started after the Thirty Year War, direct result of the Counter-Reformation
orders. The early Baroque style can be seen at the Old Town Jesuit College
Klementinum, or on the St. Ignacio church on Charles Square in the New Town. It
is the work of a renowned architect of the second half of the 17th century
named Carlo Lurago. The second wave of Baroque is directly connected to Rome.
The main mediator of the new style is the archbishop architect Jean-Baptist
Mathey, who represented pure Roman Baroque Classicism. His palace (Toskánský
Palace), manor (Troja near Prague), as well as churches (church of St. Francis
of Assisi near the Charles Bridge) fundamentally influenced Prague
architecture. The so-called Radical Baroque, the roots of which originate in
Rome and in Northern Italy, is characterized by a dynamic movement and by a
refined spatial composition. The main architect of Czech Radical Baroque
architecture was Kryštof Dientzenhofer, who built Prague's cathedral of St.
Mikuláš in the Lesser Town and Prague's St.
Margaret church in Břevnov. Gothic Baroque is connected to Jan Blažej
Santini-Aichl. The peak and simultaneously the symbolic culmination of Baroque
architecture in Prague came with the work of Kryštof Dientzenhofer's son named
Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer. He designed the dome and the belfry of the Lesser
Town St. Mikuláš church.
CHURCH OF ST. SALVATORE IN KLEMENTINUM
The church of St.
Salvatore was built in place of the medieval Dominican monastery and of the
church of St Kliment. After the arrival of the Jesuits in Prague in 1554, the
location became an ideal spot to build the church and the college for the
order. The new Jesuit church was built in two stages, first in a Renaissance
style, then an early Baroque façade was built around 1659 following plans of
architect Carlo Lurago, who is also the author of a number of substantial
modifications in the church interior and exterior. Sculptures by Baroque master
Jan Jiří Bendl are from the same period. The Jesuit Order was suppressed in 1773,
and the church went under the administration of the Archbishop Seminar.
CHURCH OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
The Church of Saint Francis of Assisi is standing on the Plaza Křížovnické, next to the Charles Bridge. The church forms part of a
monastery of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, an order, established
in 1237 by Saint Agnes of Bohemia. It was built in the Baroque style in
1679-1685 by architect Jeane Baptiste Mathey on the site of a former Gothic
church of the Holy Spirit. The interior of the church is of high artistic
value. There are statues of Saints by Jeremias and Conrad Sussner and Matěj
Václav Jackel. On the vault there is a big mural of the Last Judgment by Václav
Vavřinec Reiner.
The church of St. Ignacio of Loyola on the Charles Square used to be
the Jesuits church in the New Town. An early Baroque hall structure with the
side chapels was built between 1658 and1670 by a builder named Carlo Lurago.
The furnishing is Baroque and Rococo, and the main altar is Classic style with
a painting from 1687 by Jan Jiří Heinsch. The front of the church features a
statue of St. Ignacio of Loyola from 1671.
The early Baroque church
of Our Lady Victorious at Lesser Town was built between 1611 and 1612 by the
German Lutherans and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It is regarded as the first
Baroque architectural structure in Prague. Imperial architect Giovanni Maria
Filippi probably contributed to its construction.. In 1624, after the victory
of the counter-reformation, the church was donated by Ferdinand the Second to
the Order of the Barefoot Carmelite Monks, who had rendered outstanding
services that led to the victory of the imperial army in the Battle of the
White Mountain. The Barefoot Carmelite Monks dedicated the church to Our Lady
Victorious, rebuilt it, and built a monastery in its vicinity. They also
changed the orientation of the church, so the altar would face East (the church
originally had its entrance from the side of the Petřín Hill). To the
originally simple single-nave church, they added the choir loft, the deep
chancel and the tower. Near the monastery, they added the Seminářská Garden in
which they bred frogs and fish in artificial ponds for the Lenten meals. On the main altar of the church there
is a wax sculpture of Spanish origin called "Jesus Child of Prague",
which is world-famous among Catholics.
CHURCH OF ST. NICOLAS
St. Nicolas Church on Malá
Strana is the most well-known specimen of Prague’s Baroque architecture. The
church was planned as part of the Jesuits’ complex on Malá Strana. Construction
began in 1703 and took place in several stages under the guidance of the
premier Prague architects. Based on the plan of Christoph Dientzenhofer, the
initial phase saw the church’s façade and the nave with a wreath of chapels
erected. The monumental tripartite façade with a main entrance and two side
ones is a remarkable example of Baroque’s dynamism. The inner architecture of
the church works off of the principle of advancing geometrics. After the death
of the cathedral’s first builder in 1722, construction was continued by
Dientzenhofer’s son, Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer, who finished the traverse
nave. The silhouette of St. Nicolas Church has come to be associated with the
skyline of Malá Strana, given the church’s substantial size. The cathedral
measures 40m wide, 60m long and the copula measures 70m high. At the time of
the construction, many wondered if the thin bell-tower alongside the copula
would fall, thus the building of the church was quite a daring step. The
interior is dominated by ceiling frescoes depicting the life of the cathedral’s
patron saint, St. Nicolas, as painted by Johann Lukas Kracker. The most famous
masters of the Baroque worked together on the cathedral’s decoration, including
the painters Karel Škréta and Franz Xaver Palko and the sculptor Ignaz Platzer.
The cathedral’s organ dates from the mid-18th century and was played by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during his stay in Prague.
MATTHIAS GATE
This imposing early
Baroque gate forms the entrance from the first to the second castle courtyard.
The gate was built at the beginning of the 17th century, apparently according
to the plan of the Italian architect Giovanni Maria Filippi. It originally
stood independently in the space between Castle Square and the Castle itself
like an antique arc de triumph and served as the entrance to the seat of the
kings. When Pacassi rebuilt the castle at the end of the 18th century, the
Matthias Gate was connected to the newly built buildings via their wing’s
façade. The gate was named after the Emperor Matthias II, recalling the
inscription on the gate’s seal which names his ranks. Beneath this seal lies
Matthias’ seal as emperor and beneath this, his country’s seals.
LOBKOWICZ PALACE
The palace replaced two
large Gothic buildings in the 16th century, it was built in a Renaissance style
by the owners, the Pernštejn family. In 1627, the palace was acquired by
Polyxena of Lobkowicz. The Baroque reconstruction of the palace is the work of
architect Carlo Lurago and was done in the middle of the 17th century. The
two-storey palace has a plain facade that extends throughout two courtyards.
Two early Baroque portals lead to Jiřská Street. The original Renaissance
palace had two wings around the courtyard. It was richly decorated with
sgraffiti. Today the palace houses a permanent exhibition coming from the
private collections of the Lobkowicz family called the "Jewels of
Lobkowicz Collections". There are paintings of old masters by Velázquez,
Brueghel and Canaletto, musical instruments, original handwritten documents and
prints of renowned musical works by authors like Händel, Haydn and Beethoven.
The exhibition also has a unique collection of weapons.