Czech Renaissance architecture
The Bohemian Reformation was mistrustful of the influences coming from the "papal" Italy and rather respected the traditional values expressed with the older Gothic style.
Bohemia (together with its incorporated lands, especially Moravia) thus ranked among the areas of the Holy Roman Empire with the earliest known examples of the Renaissance architecture.
The earliest known elements of the Renaissance architecture in the Czech lands are the portals of two Moravian aristocratic residences in Moravská Třebová and Tovačov.
In the same time the Royal Palace in Prague Castle, in the capital of the Bohemian Kingdom, was rebuilt under the King Vladislaus II.
The architect of Vladislav Hall was Benedikt Rejt who later also built the Louis' Wing of the Royal Palace (1503–1509), considered the oldest Renaissance residential building in Bohemia, although the ceilings were designed in the form of Gothic rib vaults.
The Summer Palace with relief decorations and arcades in the basement which support the large balcony is considered the purest sample of the Italian Renaissance architecture north of the Alps, although it does not have any direct model in Italy.
The most significant Renaissance architects who worked for the royal and imperial court at Prague Castle were Paolo della Stella and Bonifác Wolmut, and Giovanni Maria Philippi.
The following cities are famous for their Renaissance urban architecture: Český Krumlov, Telč, Nové Město nad Metují, Pardubice, Jindřichův Hradec, Slavonice, Chrudim and Prachatice.
[1] Many town halls were built in the Renaissance style, e. g. in Litoměřice, Nymburk, Prostějov, Volyně, Stříbro, Plzeň and Hradčany and Malá Strana in Prague.
During the reign of Holy Roman Emperor and Bohemian King Rudolph II, the city of Prague became one of the most important European centers of the late Renaissance art (so-called Mannerism).
The Italian architect Giovanni Maria Philippi rebuilt and extended the New Royal Palace in Prague Castle for the Emperor.
In Holy Trinity Church in Opočno the Renaissance Corinthian pillars are supporting a Gothic rib vault built in 1567.
The churches of Our Lady of the Snows and of the Assumption of Mary and St. Charlemagne in the New Town of Prague got their present ceilings in form of Gothic-like rib vaults.
