PLECNIK, PRAGUE, AND PALATINE

The study is aimed at demonstration that palaces of ancient Roman emperors might have been the main source of Josip Plecnik’s imagination when remodelling Prague Castle (from 1920) for T. G. Masaryk, the first president of the Czechoslovak Republic. Plecnik revived (or tried to revive) many of its features – porticoed façade, basilican hall, cryptoportico, vestibule in the form of a rotunda, and park shaped like a hippodrome. He did not hesitate to modify traditional forms in order to revive them, but he always respected tradition. His innovations were bold, but they never countered the spirit of ancient Greek and Roman architectural tradition.