|
PRAGUE CASTLE
Prague Castle History
The history of the castle stretches back to the 9th century (870). The first walled building was the church of Our Lady. Basilicas of St. George and St. Vitus were founded in the first half of the 10th century. The first convent in Bohemia was founded in the castle, next to the church of St. George. A Romanesque palace was erected here during the 12th century.
In the 14th century, under the reign of Charles IV the royal palace was rebuilt in Gothic style and the castle fortifications were strengthen. In place of rotunda and basilica of St. Vitus began building of a vast Gothic
church, that have been completed almost six centuries later. During the Hussite Wars and the following decades the Castle was not inhabited. In 1485 King Ladislaus II Jagello begins to rebuild the castle. The massive Vladislav Hall (built by Benedikt Rejt) was added to the Royal Palace. Then were also built new defence towers on the northern side of the castle. A big fire of
1541 destroyed large parts of the castle. Under Habsburgs some new buildings in renaissance style appeared here. Ferdinand I built Belvedere, summer palace for his wife Anne. Rudolph II used Prague Castle as his main residence. He founded the northern wing of the palace, with the Spanish Hall, where his precious
artistic collections were exhibited. Second Prague defenestration in 1618 began the Bohemian Revolt. During the subsequent wars the Castle was damaged and dilapidated. Many works from the
collection of Rudolph II were looted by Swedes in 1648, in the course of the Thirty Years' War. The last major rebuilding of the castle was carried out by Empress Maria Theresa in the second half of the 18th century. Ferdinand V after abdication in 1848 chose Prague Castle as his home. In 1918 the castle became the seat of the president of the new
Czechoslovak Republic. The New Royal Palace and the gardens were renovated by Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik.
During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia during World War II, Prague Castle became the headquarters of Reinhard Heydrich, the "Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia". It is said that he placed the Bohemian crown on his head, believing himself
to be a great king; old legends say that a usurper who places the crown on his head is doomed to die within a year. Less than
a year after assuming power, Heydrich was assassinated. After the liberation of Czechoslovakia, it housed the offices of the
communist Czechoslovak government. After Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the castle became the
seat of the Head of State of the new Czech Republic.
The castle buildings represent virtually every architectural style of the last millennium. The Prague Castle includes gothic
St Vitus Cathedral, romanesque basilica of St. George, a monastery and several palaces, gardens and defence towers. Most of the castle areas are opened
to the tourists. Nowadays, the castle houses several museums, including the National Gallery collection of Bohemian baroque and mannerism art, exhibition dedicated to Czech history, Toy Museum and the picture gallery of Prague Castle, based on the collection
of Rudolph II. Summer Shakespeare Festival regularly takes place in the courtyard of the Burgrave Palace.
The neighbourhood around the Prague Castle is called Hradčany.
Prague Castle is a sprawling complex situated atop a large
hill on the left bank of the Vltava River, which runs through old town Prague. It is not exactly a "classic" castle,
because portions of it were built in different styles, and it spreads out more horizontally than vertically. But inside
the castle, there are many sights and attractions. The main feature is St. Vitus cathedral, an interesting 14th century
Gothic structure adorned with fascinating gargoyles that can be seen easily from ground level. Inside St. Vitus are
some very elaborate tombs, a lot of Czech history. It is possible and worthwhile to climb to the top of the bell tower,
which takes you to the highest point inside the castle, from which there are fabulous views of the castle and old town Prague.
Elsewhere around the castle are the "Golden Lane," a series of small, colorful shops that originally served as housing for
the palace guards; the throne room for the kings of Bohemia, a great hall that looks like it hasn't changed in 500 years;
and a Czech art museum. There's also a toy museum, which really has nothing to do with the castle, but contains some
very interesting old and new toys. The changing of the palace guard is an entertaining affair, sort of a poor man's
version of London's Buckingham Palace routine. When we visited in April 1999, an adult admission ticket to all the main
attractions of the castle cost 120 Kc, about $4 US. Allow a minimum of four hours for a visit. In general, Prague
is a wonderful city to visit, with many well-preserved medieval attractions and a slightly exotic Eastern European flavor.
SAINT VITUS CATHEDRAL
The first church — also consecrated to St. Vitus — that stood at the location of the present-day cathedral
was an early romanesque rotunda founded by Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia in 925. This patron saint was chosen because Wenceslaus had acquired a holy relic — the arm of St. Vitus — from
Emperor Henry I. It is also possible that Wenceslaus, wanting to convert his subjects to Christianity more easily, chose a
saint whose name sounds very much like the name of Slavic solar deity Svantevit. Two religious populations, the increasing Christian and decreasing pagan community, lived simultaneously in Prague castle
at least until the 11th century.
In the year 1060, as the bishopric of Prague was founded, prince Spythinev II embarked on building a more spacious church, as it became clear
the existing rotunda was too small to accommodate the faithful. A much larger and more representative romanesque basilica was built in its spot. Though still not completely reconstructed, most experts agree it was a triple-aisled basilica with
two choirs and a pair of towers connected to the western transept. The design of the cathedral nods to Romanesque architecture of the Holy Roman Empire (of which Prague was the capital), most notably to the abbey church in Hildesheim and the Speyer Cathedral. The southern apse of the rotunda was incorporated into the eastern transept of the new church because it housed the tomb
of St. Wenceslaus, who had by now become the patron saint of the Czech princes. A bishop's mansion was also built south of
the new church, and was considerably enlarged and extended in the mid 12th-century.
The present day Gothic Cathedral was founded on 21st of November, 1344, when the Prague bishopric was raised to an archbishopric. Its patrons were the chapter of cathedral (led by a Dean), the
Archbishop Arnost of Pardubice, and, above all, Charles IV, King of Bohemia and a soon-to-be Holy Roman Emperor, who intended the new cathedral to be a coronation church, family crypt, treasury for the most precious relics of the kingdom,
and the last resting place cum pilgirimage site of patron saint Wenceslaus. The first master builder was a Frenchman Matthias of Arras, summoned from the papal palace in Avignon. Matthias designed the overall layout of the building as, basically, an import of French Gothic: a triple-naved basilica
with flying buttresses, short transept, five-bayed choir and decagon apse with ambulatory and radiating chapels. However, he lived to build only the easternmost parts of the choir: the arcades and the ambulatory. The slender verticality of Late French Gothic and clear, almost rigid respect of proportions distinguish
his work today.
After Matthias' death in 1352, a new master builder took over the cathedral workshop. This was Peter Parler, at that time only 23-years old and son of the architect of the Heiligenkreutzkirche in Schwäbische Gmünd. Parler at first only worked according to the plans left by his predecessor, building the sacristy on the north side of the
choir and the chapel on the south. Once he finished all that Matthias left unfinished, he continued according to his own ideas.
Parler's bold and innovative design brought in a unique new synthesis of Gothic elements in architecture. This is best exemplified in the vaults he designed for the choir. The so-called Parler's vaults or net-vaults have double (not single, as in classic High Gothic
groin-vaults) diagonal ribs that span the width of the choir-bay. The crossing pairs of ribs create a net-like construction
(hence the name), which considerably strengthens the vault. They also give a lively ornamentation to the ceiling, as the interlocking
vaulted bays create a dynamic zigzag pattern down the length of the cathedral.
While Matthias of Arras was schooled as a geometer, thus putting an emphasis on rigid systems of proportions and clear,
mathematical compositions in his design, Parler was trained as sculptor and woodcarver. He treated architecture as a sculpture,
almost as if playing with structural forms in stone. Aside from his rather bold vaults, the pecularities of his work can also
be seen in the design of pillars (with classic, bell-shaped columns which were almost forgotten by High Gothic), the ingenious dome vault of new St Wenceslaus chapel, the undulating clerestory walls, the original window tracery (no two of his windows are the same, the ornamentation is always different) and the blind tracery pannels of the buttresses.
Architectural sculpture was given a considerable role while Parler was in charge of construction, as can be seen in the corbels, the passageway lintels,
and, particularly, in the busts on the triforium, which depict faces of the royal family, saints, Prague bishops, and the two master builders, including Parler himself.
Work on the cathedral, however, proceeded rather slowly, due to the fact that in the meantime the Emperor commissioned
Parler with many other projects, such as the construction of the new Charles bridge in Prague and many churches throughout the Czech realm. By 1397, when Peter Parler died, only the choir and parts of the transept were finished.
After Peter Parler's death in 1406 his sons, Wenzel Parler and particularly Johannes Parler, continued his work; they in turn were succeeded by a certain Master Petrilk, who by all accounts was also a member of Parler's
workshop. Under these three masters, the transept and the great tower on its south side were finished. So was the gable which
connects the tower with the south transept. Nicknamed 'Golden Gate' (likely because of the golden mosaic of Last Judgment depicted on it), it is through this portal that the kings entered the cathedral for coronation ceremonies.
The entire building process came to a halt with the beginning of Hussite War in the first half of 15th century. The war brought an end to the workshop that operated steadily over for almost a century,
and the furnishings of cathedral, dozens of pictures and sculptures, suffered heavily from the ravages of Hussite iconoclasm. As if this was not enough, a great fire in 1541 considerably damaged the cathedral.
Through most of the following centuries, the cathedral stood only half-finished. It was built up to the great tower and
a transept, which was closed by a provisional wall. In the place of a three-aisled nave-to-be-built, a timber-roofed construction
stood, and services were held separately there from the interior of the choir. Several attempts to continue the work on cathedral
were mostly unsuccessful. In the latter half of 15th century, king Vladislav Jagiellon commissioned the great Renesaince-Gothic architect Benedict Ried to continue the work on the cathedral, but almost as soon
as the work began, it was cut short because of lack of funds. Later attempts to finish the cathedral only brought some Renaissance and Baroque elements into the Gothic building, most notably the obviously different Baroque spire of the south tower and the great organ
in the northern wing of transept.
In 1844 Vaclav Pesina, an energetic canon St Vitus, together with Neo-Gothic architect Josef Kranner presented a program for renovation
and completion of the great cathedral at the gathering of German architects in Prague. The same year a society under the full
name "Union for Completion of the Cathedral of St Vitus in Prague" was formed, whose aim was to repair, complete and get rid
of "everything mutiliated and stylistically inimical". Josef Kranner was heading what was mostly repair work from 1861 to 1866, getting rid of Baroque decorations deemed unnecessary and restoring the interior. In 1870 the foundations of the new nave were finally laid, and in 1873, after Kramer's death, architect Josef Mocker took over the reconstruction. It was he who designed the west facade in a typical classic Gothic manner with two towers,
and the same design was adopted, after his death, by the third and final architect of restoration, Kamil Hilbert. The famous
Czech secession painter Alfons Mucha decorated the new windows in the north part of nave. The Rose Window was designed by Frantisek Kysela in 1925-7. This Rose
Window above the portal depicts sences from the biblical story of creation. By the time of St Wenceslas jubilee in 1929, the St Vitus cathedral was finally finished; it took almost 600 years to built it. Despite the fact that entire western
half of Cathedral is a Neo-Gothic addition, much of the design and elements developed by Peter Parler were used in the restoration,
giving the Cathedral as a whole a harmonious, unified look.
The Cathedral of St. Vitus had trumendous influence on the development of Late Gothic style characteristic for Central Europe. Members of Parler workshop, and indeed, the Parler clan (both of which were established at the building site of St. Vitus) designed numerous churches and buildings across Central Europe. More notable examples include Stephansdom cathedral in Vienna, Strasbourg Cathedral, Church of St. Marko in Zagreb and the Church of St. Barbara in Kutna Hora, also in Czech Republic. Regional Gothic styles of Slovenia, northren Croatia, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland and southren Germany were all heavily influenced by Parler design.
Of particular interest are Parler's net vaults. The Late Gothic of Central Europe is characterised by ornate and extrodinary vaulting, a practice which was started by Parler's
development of his own vaulting system for the choir of St. Vitus cathedral. Another regional Gothic style also displays amazing ingenuinity and ornamentation in the design of
vaults, the Perpendicular Style of English Gothic. A question remains of what was influenced by what. Some British art and architecture historians suspected whetever Peter
Parler might have travelled to England at some point in his life, studying the great English Gothic cathedrals, which then
inspired his work on St Vitus. However, taking into account that the Perpendicular style and the use of truly extravagant
vaults in English Gothic began at the very end of 14th century, it is also quite possible that it was St Vitus Cathedral of
Prague that influenced the development of English Gothic.
CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO THE TOP
|
