Ten centuries of European architecture & heritage
The Catholic victory in the Thirty Years’ War (1618 to 1648) resulted in the most substantial changes to the fabric of the city since the 14th century. And the chosen medium for the church’s renewed authority across the kingdom was the uncompromising power of baroque sculpture.
The first Cistercians in the Czech lands were monks from Bavaria who settled in the village of Sedlec during the 12th century, In their wake came German prospectors who discovered silver in the hills of...
Humprecht Jan Černín (Czernin, in the usual German spelling) came from one of Bohemia’s wealthiest families, their fortunes enriched still further by the Catholic victory in the Thirty Years’ War. His great-uncle had served at...
This sumptuous late renaissance structure in Prague’s Malá Strana district was developed from a property owned by the Kinsky family. After 1623, on the instructions of the new owner Pavel Michna of Vacínov, it was...
According to legend, in order to keep it safe from the hands of the infidel, the simple house in which the Virgin Mary is supposed to have lived was transported from Nazareth by divine intervention....
The baroque statues for which Charles Bridge is rightly famous are not arranged according to any predetermined plan. They were erected individually over many decades, part of the programme of recatholicization after the Thirty Years’...
Visitors to Prague are always surprised to learn that the avenue of saints keeping watch over Charles Bridge was never planned as a single architectural scheme. In fact the statues were created by no fewer...
Tucked away behind an unassuming gateway on Karmelitská street in Malá Strana is one of the hidden gems of Prague: the baroque garden constructed for Jan Josef Count of Vrtba, considered to be among the...
Saint Ivo Helory was a thirteenth-century parish priest from Brittany who was canonized in 1347. He trained as a lawyer and rapidly made his name as an advocate for orphans, widows and the poor. Two...
This renaissance house with its baroque exterior is typical of the residences in this part of the city’s Malá Strana (Lesser Quarter). Many of them carry baroque era cartouches with symbols of animals, birds or...
These impressive formal gardens form part of the palace complex designed for Count Albrecht of Wallenstein by the architectural triumvirate of Giovanni Pieroni, Andrea Spezza and Nicolo Sebregondi. Covering four-and-a-half acres — nearly two hectares...
