Prague. MYSTERIOUS CHARM OF A CITY BETWEEN KAFKA AND BAROQUE

The Bohemian metropolis, with its mysterious seduction, is considered one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.

by Fabio Massimo Penna

At the beginning of the twentieth century Prague entered the gotha of world literature. In 1883, Franz Kafka, one of the most important literary writers of the 20th century, gave birth to Franz Kafka. Kafka digs into the inner discomfort of modern man so that between Prague and Vienna, where the father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud works, an imaginary axis is created in which the human soul is analyzed with its impulses and its unconscious contents. The Prague in which Kafka was born is a crossroads of ethnicities in which Czech (Slovak), German and Jewish culture converge. In the narrow alleys of the Jewish ghetto the young writer grows up developing a deep inclination for Jewish mysticism. The metaphysical and dark universe in which the protagonists of The Trial, The Castle and Metamorphosis are debated finds a concrete counter-attack in a enchanting and mysterious Prague.

The Bohemian city looks like a baroque jewel. In his buildings he shows an inclination for Italian architecture with a focus on the figure of Andrea Palladio and the model of ancient Rome. In the 18th century, the Bavarian dientzenhofer family renewed the appearance of the metropolis by imposing an original artistic style. In 1721 with the facade of the sanctuary of Loreto (an ancient tradition he wants the walls of the cave where Jesus was born to Loreto) Christoph and Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer reintroduce the late Gothic style to The Prague buildings. The low structure with horizontal development (which refers to the Palladian boats of Villa Barbaro in Maser) is ennobled by the tower of the bell tower and two bodies raised at the ends of the building. The Italian imprint in the Czech urbe is witnessed by Palazzo Cernin, designed by Francesco Caratti, which presents on the lower floor a rustic bunata reminiscent of the diamond tip of the Ferrara Palazzo dei Diamonds by Biagio Rossetti and in the upper floors an alternation of eardrum windows and giant Corinthian parasts. The Italian Caratti is one of the protagonists of the architecture of the Bohemian center where he also realizes the Church of St. Mary Magdalene and a wing of Palazzo Roudnice. Another key figure is that of the architect French Jean Baptist Mathey. Its Bishop's Palace is characterized by a smooth bed on the ground floor with arches all over the floor in the portal at the side openings while the upper areas have a succession of lesene and windows with arched eardrums (often interrupted). Everything is crowned by an impressive triangular pediment and sculptural decorations in the shape of an aphora.

The most famous city building is probably the Church of St. Nicholas, a masterpiece by Christoph Dientzenhofer considered one of the most beautiful churches in Europe. Dientzenhofer helps to give the city skyline its characteristic late Baroque appearance. The facade is imposed for its harmony based on a game of concave and convex of Borrominian inspiration. Equally fascinating is the combination of spherical and linear dictated by the straight verticality of paraste and lesene contrasted with the roundness of the arched gables. The vibrant and choppy appearance of the exterior is replicated in an interior in which semi-columns, lesene, gilded stucco and statues create an unstable and enveloping vision that carries the gaze in a perspective escape ended by an altar with abundant and lush decorations. The work will be completed by the son of the Bavarian architect Kilian Ignaz, who also created the Amerika villa built on behalf of Count Wenzel Michma.

Prague has maintained over the centuries its late-Baroque appearance allowing only sporadic meddling by modern and contemporary architecture. Among these exceptions shines Frank O.Gehry's so-called "Paso doble", a structure formed by two palaces that simulate the interweaving of two bodies of tango dancers. The Nationale-Nederlanden Building is located in one of only three points in the city where new construction is allowed. Located at an angle at the intersection of two streets, the two buildings combine the rounded shapes of one building with the winding and swaying shapes of the other. This one-of-a-kind structure fits by contrast, without bringing upheaval, into the city's pre-architectural features.