Joze Plecnik’s Prague, Vienna & Ljubljana
Prague Castle.
Jože Plečnik (1872 – 1957) was a Slovene architect who had a major impact on the modern identity of these beautiful central European cities. Join Austrian and Slovenian capitals at celebration of the 145th anniversary of Birth of this influential and important city planner.
Prague
Czech president Masaryk entrusted the modification of the Prague Castle to Jože Plečnik, who then remained the Prague Castle architect until 1934. Cooperation between Masaryk and Plečnik resulted in a number of modifications to the interiors and exteriors of Prague Castle.
One remarkable work of Plečnik’s is the Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord in Vinohrady, the most beautiful modern church in Prague, reminiscent of the mystical structures of Ancient Egypt. The broad, 42 m high bell-tower, with its copper dome and crucifix, can be seen in the Prague panorama from as far away as Prague Castle.
Vienna
From 1900 through 1910 Plečnik practiced architecture in Vienna, completing projects such as the Langer House and the Zacherl apartment block. Plečnik’s Church of the Holy Spirit is remarkable for its innovative use of poured-in-place concrete as both structure and exterior surface, and also for its abstracted classical form language. Most radical is the church’s crypt, with its slender concrete columns and angular, cubist capitals and bases.
Plecnik’s Church of the Holy Spirit, Vienna.
Ljubljana
Visit the renovated Plečnik House as the starting point of discovering Plečnik’s hometown. The famous architect tried to model Ljubljana on ancient Athens. The multitude of his creations in the city, referred to as a whole as “Plečnik’s Ljubljana”, is considered to be one of the 20th century’s most important total works of art. He is also a founding member of the Ljubljana School of Architecture.
In 2017, the Plečnik Year, Ljubljana commemorates two anniversaries that marked the life of the architect Jože Plečnik: the 60th anniversary of his death (7 January 1957) and the 145th anniversary of his birth (23 January 1872).
The timeless, humanistic architecture of Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana and Prague become part of UNESCO Tentative List (linkto: http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5968/). “During the crisis in modern urban planning, we discovered anew the humanistic value of Plečnik’s public spaces, his sensibility to the contexts and his ability to recognise the importance of landscape planning within towns, which preceded the Historic Urban Landscape approach to historic towns.”
Plečnik’s tromostovje – triple bridge in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
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