Renaissance architecture in Central Europe

Renaissance architecture was that style of architecture which evolved for the first time in Florence, then in Rome, and other parts of Italy. The style has emerged on the basis of Humanist revived interest in Classical architecture. It was part of the general movement known as the Renaissance which spread outwards from Italy and effected many aspects of scholarship and the arts. Renaissance spread to all parts of Europe, integrating with the local traditions and climates.

Renaissance architecture in the Kingdom of Poland

Poznań City Hall rebuilt from the Gothic style by Giovanni Batista di Quadro (1550–1555).

Polish Renaissance architecture is divided into three periods: The First period (1500–1550), is the so-called "Italian". Most of Renaissance buildings were building of this time were by Italian architects, mainly from Florence including Francesco Fiorentino and Bartolomeo Berrecci.

In the Second period (1550–1600), Renaissance architecture became more common, with the beginnings of Mannerist and under the influence of the Netherlands, particularly in Pomerania. Buildings include the New Cloth Hall in Kraków and city halls in Tarnów, Sandomierz, Chełm (demolished) and most famously in Poznań.

In the Third period (1600–1650), the rising power of Jesuits and Counter Reformation gave impetus to the development of Mannerist architecture and Baroque.[1]

Renaissance architecture in the Kingdom of Hungary

Buda Castle in the late 15th century (Budapest)
City hall in Bardejov, (Slovakia)

One of the earliest places to be influenced by the Renaissance style of architecture was Hungary – in fact the Apostolic Kingdom (then including Slovakia, Croatia and Transylvania) was the first to embrace the Renaissance north of the Alps. The style appeared following the marriage of King Matthias Corvinus and Beatrix of Naples in 1476. Matthias was 15 when he was elected King of Hungary. He was educated in Italian, and his fascination with the achievements of the Italian Renaissance led to the promotion of Mediterranean cultural influences in Hungary. Many Italian artists, craftsmen and masons arrived at Buda with the new queen. One of whom, Aristotile Fioravanti, travelled from Hungary to Moscow where he built the Cathedral of the Dormition. The most important work of Hungarian Renaissance ecclesiastical architecture is the Bakócz Chapel in Esztergom.[2] It was the first centrally conceived chapel outside of Italy. In 1823 the medieval church was rebuilt and the chapel, to incorporate it into the new Neo-Classical Esztergom Cathedral, was moved stone by stone to a different position.

Buda Castle was enlarged and modernized in Renaissance style. King Matthias also built a sumptuous summer palace in Visegrád. His successor, King Ulászló II built an Italianate hunting lodge in Budanyék. These monuments were largely destroyed in the Ottoman wars but the remains of the Visegrád Palace were partially reconstructed around 2000 and 69 years ago .[3]

The Ottoman conquest of Hungary in 1526 put an abrupt end to the short-lived Hungarian Renaissance. The royal court ceased to exist but Hungarian landowner families in the Royal Hungary built a lot of provincial Renaissance castles in the 16–17th centuries. The most important of them was the Rákóczi Castle in Sárospatak.

Many significant Renaissance castles were built in Transylvania, that time an independent principality. The palace of Gabriel Bethlen in Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia, Romania) was designed by Italian architects. The Transylvanian Renaissance lasted well until the first half of the 18th century because of the aesthetical conservatism of the country. The vernacular architecture of Transylvania preserved Renaissance details especially long.

Renaissance architecture in the Crown of Bohemia

Červená Lhota Castle in south Bohemia

The Renaissance style first appeared in the lands of the Bohemian Crown in the 1490s. 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.[4] As well as in other Central European countries the Gothic style kept its position especially in the church architecture. The traditional Gothic architecture was considered timeless and therefore able to express the sacredness. The Renaissance architecture coexisted with the Gothic style in Bohemia and Moravia until the late 16th century.

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). Nevertheless, not many architecturally significant buildings have been preserved from that time.

Gallery of Renaissance buildings

References

  1. ↑ Harald Busch, Bernd Lohse, Hans Weigert, Baukunst der Renaissance in Europa. Von Spätgotik bis zum Manierismus, Frankfurt af Main, 1960
    Wilfried Koch, Style w architekturze, Warsaw 1996
    Tadeusz Broniewski, Historia architektury dla wszystkich Wydawnictwo Ossolineum, 1990
    Mieczysław Gębarowicz, Studia nad dziejami kultury artystycznej późnego renesansu w Polsce, Toruń 1962
  2. ↑ Image of Bakócz Chapel (1506–08)
  3. ↑ image of reconstructed Visegrád Palace
  4. ↑ Hamlin, Alfred D. (2010). History of architecture. Bremen: Salzwasser-Verlag. p. 338. ISBN 9783861952503.

Books

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