Bohemian Baroque .. a Czech history lesson

The origins of Bohemian Baroque architecture in the early-mid 17th Century can be traced to innovative Italian architects (such as Borromini) who were working with a much greater dynamic conception of space using intersecting ovoid (concave/convex) shapes and undulating, fluid facades. These architectural spaces are characterized by dramatic oppositional spaces, complex stacking of forms which gives the facades a dramatic formal tension, and a repetition of elements, such as windows, entablatures and columns, which lends a rhythmic balance to the theatrical spaces. This architecture was exported beyond Italy due to the winning by the Catholics of the religious Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648). Baroque Architecture was at the heart of the Catholic counter-reformation, an ambassador of Catholic power opposed to the simpler, less-monied styles of the Reformation churches. Its grandiosity suggested the power and pomp of the Church and the nobles who supported the Church, the majesty of it’s church’s interiors, symbolic of the link between the Church and heaven, the Pope being God’s representative on Earth. The so-called “radical” Baroque reached a pinnacle in Bohemia and Prague as it represented here even more forcefully the occupation of the victorious Catholics against the Protestants.
The forces of reformation against the Catholic Church have a strong history in the Czech lands. One hundred years before Martin Luther, in the early 1400’s, Jan Hus was martyred and his followers rebelled against the powers in Rome – many battles had ensued, and though the Czechs did have a few victories (under Jan Zizka at Vitkov Hill, for example) theirs was ultimately a peasant army against the trained soldiers of the Catholic Hapsburgs. The Hussites were run into hiding; but the ideas lingered on, and under the lenient rule of Rudolf at the beginning of the 1600’s, the Protestants and Hussites were allowed more tolerance. With Rudolf’s death in 1612, more militant Catholics held the reins of power in Prague and the Protestants were pushed into more open rebellion. This led to the Third Defenestration of Prague in 1618, the brief reign of the Palatinate Frederick II, and the beginning of the Thirty Years War. Bohemia was quickly defeated in the beginning of this war with the Battle of White Mountain of 1620, and the Hapsburgs, under Ferdinand the II quickly regained power in the region. The mercenary general Albrecht of Wallenstein, among many others, made fortunes from the sacking of the territories – and this money was funneled back into large architectural projects, both in Prague, and in outlying estates.

Prague Castle - Loretto Monastery

An example of early 18^th Cent. Baroque Architecture, this Cappucin monastery was built around a copy of the Loretto pilgrimage shrine in Italy. The pilgrimage site was developed quickly after the Battle of White Mountain, and 100 years later the current design of the building was realized. There were many such shrines throughout Catholic Europe at the time – the Loretto, or Casa Santa, being supposedly the home of Mary and Joseph from Bethlehem, miraculously flown from the Holy Lands by angels to Northern Italy.

The Loretto of Hradcany is the best-known Loretto in Bohemia, it contains two beams and a brick from the original in Italy, as well as the ubiquitous Black Madonna of all Lorettos (the original Black Madonna was actually destroyed by fire in the early 20^th Cent.) The main building and façade were designed by the Dienzenhofers (Krystoff and Killian Ignacz) from 1716 – 1723. The chapel of the Nativity, at the rear of the courtyard, houses a depiction of the Massacre of the Innocents, Mary and Jesus are seen hiding on the roof, and also a depiction of the holy transport by angels of the Santa Casa (it was actually brought back, of course, by crusaders in the 13^th Cent. working for the Angeli family). The central chapel, also designed by Dienzenhofer, contains two important paintings of the Baroque Luminist school by the Austrian painter Anton Koer. The ceiling frescoes are by the 18^th Century Czech specialist, Vaclav Vavrinec Reiner. Behind the main altar we can see the use of a window to illuminate from behind – this is a Baroque detail borrowed from the work of Bernini in his famous Roman chapel of St. Theresa, which was well-known at the time.

Upstairs we have the treasury which includes many gold and jewel-studded processional staff-heads, made from the donated jewels of countesses. The largest and most well-known, called the “Diamond Monstrance” was designed by Joseph von Erlach in 1699 from the wealth of Ludmila Eva Francizka of Kolowrat and contains over 6900 precious stones. It is ironic that the Cappuchins, being a poor and humble order related to the Franciscans, should house such valuable relics.

The Loretto is also known for its bell-tower or “carillon” which holds 27 different bells and is used for training musicians, as well as ringing out on the hour a hymn in praise of Mary. One of many apocryphal stories associated with these bells, all of which of course have names and legends attached to them, is about an old widow who had lost all her children to the flood of the 17^th Cent. – she would often visit the Loretto and pay small donations for carols to be played on the bells in memory of her lost children. Finally the day came when the old woman herself passed away, and there, during her funeral, the bells began to peal unaided for the devout woman and her children.