WGoA
SANTINI AICHEL, Johann Blasius - b. 1677 Prague, d. 1723 Prague - WGA

SANTINI AICHEL, Johann Blasius

(b. 1677 Prague, d. 1723 Prague)

Johann Blasius (Jan Blazej, Giovanni) Santini Aichel (Santin Eichel), Bohemian architect of Italian origin. He became a painter first, but from 1700 he devoted himself to architecture. In 1705 he became a Lesser Town burgher in Prague and also a member of the builders’ guild.

He was influenced by local architects such as Jean Baptiste Mathey (after his death he took over some of his projects and joined his collaborators) and Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. He was greatly influenced by his journey to Rome where got acquainted with the work of Borromini.

Santini worked mainly for church orders (Benedictines, Premonstratensians), less for the nobility. His constructions are characterized by a great variety and an effort to find new solutions. He elaborated an original form of the so-called Baroque Gothic style, a way of coping with the local historical tradition. Central location with swapping of materials is one of his signature styles.

Exterior view
Exterior view by

Exterior view

The combination of a circular central plan with removed or overlapping ellipses was given virtuoso treatment by Santini Aichel in the votive chapel of St. John Nepomuk on the Green Hill. Five ovals alternate with five triangular niches arranged regularly round a circle. This produces a linear dynamism which s taken up in the cornice of the dome. For the architect, this shape was a symbol of a sacred event: when St.John Nepomuk was drowned in the river Vltava, five stars were supposed have circled over his head. Pointed shapes and half oval roundels refer to the martyr’s crown with five stars.

Send Postcard Learn More
Exterior view
Exterior view by

Exterior view

The combination of a circular central plan with removed or overlapping ellipses was given virtuoso treatment by Santini Aichel in the votive chapel of St. John Nepomuk on the Green Hill. Five ovals alternate with five triangular niches arranged regularly round a circle. This produces a linear dynamism which s taken up in the cornice of the dome. For the architect, this shape was a symbol of a sacred event: when St.John Nepomuk was drowned in the river Vltava, five stars were supposed have circled over his head. Pointed shapes and half oval roundels refer to the martyr’s crown with five stars.

Send Postcard Learn More
Exterior view
Exterior view by

Exterior view

The combination of a circular central plan with removed or overlapping ellipses was given virtuoso treatment by Santini Aichel in the votive chapel of St. John Nepomuk on the Green Hill. Five ovals alternate with five triangular niches arranged regularly round a circle. This produces a linear dynamism which s taken up in the cornice of the dome. For the architect, this shape was a symbol of a sacred event: when St.John Nepomuk was drowned in the river Vltava, five stars were supposed have circled over his head. Pointed shapes and half oval roundels refer to the martyr’s crown with five stars.

Send Postcard Learn More
Feedback