Czech Baroque architecture
[1] Czech Baroque architecture is considered to be a unique part of the European cultural heritage thanks to its extensiveness and extraordinariness.
In Bohemia there was completed in a very original way the development of the Radical Baroque style created in Italy by Francesco Borromini and Guarino Guarini.
Many of the Baroque architects who worked, lived and often also died in the Czech lands came from different countries or were of foreign origin, mainly Italian, some came also from Bavaria, Austria or France.
Prague was one of the main centers of Mannerist art (a late Renaissance style, foreseeing early Baroque) under Rudolph II (1576–1611).
The first Baroque palace in Prague and probably also the first in Central Europe[5] was built in 1621–1630 for a Czech nobleman, general of the imperial army in the Thirty Years' War, Albrecht von Wallenstein.
In the early Baroque style was renovated the residence of the archbishops of Olomouc in Kroměříž by Italian-Swiss architect Filiberto Lucchese and then by Italian Giovanni Pietro Tencalla.
They are known for their style called "radical Baroque", which was inspired by examples from northern Italy, particularly by the works of Guarino Guarini, and which seeks to express movement.
Other important high Baroque architects in the Crown of Bohemia were Giovanni Battista Alliprandi, born in Italy, worked mainly for aristocracy, František Maxmilián Kaňka and Jan Santini Aichel.
One of the most precious high Baroque secular buildings in Prague is the Clam-Gallas Palace built in 1714-1718 by famous Austrian architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach who also designed the Baroque rebuilding of Vranov nad Dyjí Chateau in Moravia and the Parnas fountain in Brno.
The Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk built in 1720s in this style by Jan Santini Aichel can be found on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
In the style of Baroque Classicism the New Royal Palace of the Prague Castle was rebuilt by the Viennese architect Nicolò Pacassi in the second half of the 18th century.
