Czech Baroque architecture

Czech Baroque architecture refers to the architectural period of the 17th and 18th century in Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia, which comprised the Crown of Bohemia and today constitute the Czech Republic.

The Baroque style also changed the character of the Czech countryside (churches and chapels in Czech countryside are mostly Baroque). Czech Baroque architecture is considered to be a unique part of the European cultural heritage thanks to its extensiveness and extraordinariness. In the first third of the 18th century the Czech lands (especially Bohemia) were one of the leading artistic centers of the Baroque style. 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. The leading architects of the Czech High Baroque style (also called Radical Baroque of Bohemia) were Christoph Dientzenhofer, Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer and Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel.

The spread of the Baroque style in the Crown of Bohemia was coupled with the victory of the Catholic Church during the Thirty Years' War when the Catholic Church became the only legal church in the Kingdom of Bohemia (from 1627) and Margraviate of Moravia (from 1628). The heyday of Baroque style in the Czech lands can be seen in the early 18th century.

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.

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