RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
A1 Čiháková, Jarmila
A1 Müller, Martin
T1 The church of St. Wenceslaus at Malá Strana in the geometric world of Central European rotundasDie Kirche des hl. Wenzel in Prag-Kleinseite in der geometrischen Welt der mittelalterlichen Rotunden
JF Staletá Praha
YR 2015
VO 31
IS 1
SP 2
OP 109
DO 10.56112/sp.2015.1.01
UL https://staletapraha.cz/en/artkey/pha-201501-0001.php
AB Early Medieval rotundas are simple, often only fragmentary preserved buildings with minimum of architectonic details enabling their art historic interpretation. For the proposal of presumed appearance of recently discovered rotunda at Malá Strana an attempt was made to delve into mental processes of the architects of that time and to identify their original aims. Method of the reverse project was applied to the reconstruction of the architects'conception concerning the planning and construction for 28 rotundas as seen in their groundplans. Although in Early Medieval architecture we generally presume the routine copying design from architectonic archetypes of the key buildings of Christianity and the Empire, for the analysed complex the method of the reverse project resulted in indisputable conclusion that each of the analysed buildings had its own original architectural design and construction layout of the groundplan. The originality of the construction therefor clearly indicates an architectonic aim. In individual phases of the rotunda projects high knowledge of geometric art is applied, following classical mathemathic rules. Thanks to the recognition of hypotheticaly valid principles of the construction layout of rotundas, a possible version of the groundplan and the elevation parametres of St. Wenceslaus rotunda at Malá Strana in Prague could be reconstructed. Besides the hypothetical forms of the projects, the study of the rotundas groundplans also enabled the formulation of some findings and to propose hypothesis on the theme of building technologies, architectonic practise and historic context.