Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer

1 September 1689, Prague – 12 December 1751, Prague

Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer was the son of the prominent Baroque architect Kryštof Dientzenhofer, from whom he learnt the builder’s craft. He studied mathematics at Prague university and was also very interested in philosophy and theology, which was later reflected in many of his buildings. In 1708, he went on a study trip, lived in Vienna in the milieu of architect Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt and probably also visited Italy, including Rome. After returning to Prague in 1715, he worked on projects of the family workshop (e.g. reconstruction of Břevnov Monastery), which he took over after his father’s death.

During his career, spanning 25 years, Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer designed approximately 200 buildings and became the most important figure of Czech architecture at the time. His main clients were religious orders (the Benedictines, the Jesuits, the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, the Augustinians, etc.), with whom he worked for decades. His numerous sacred buildings include primarily the Church of Mary Magdalene in Karlovy Vary, the monastery and the collection of smaller churches in the Broumov region, the Church of Saint John of Nepomuk on the Rock, the Church of Saint Nicholas in Prague’s Old Town and the expansion of the Church of Saint Nicholas in the Lesser Quarter. Dientzenhofer also built many smaller villas and town houses commissioned by members of the nobility and citizenry. The building of Invalidovna in Prague was meant to be the pinnacle of his work on secular buildings, but in the end only one ninth of its was built.

The formative influences on Dientzenhofer’s architecture came from the dynamic, Radical Baroque architecture of his father, although in his works he managed to combine different movements of European and Czech Baroque traditions into impressive and original units. His sacred buildings are typically in the form of a central church, mostly on an oval or polygonal floorplan, finished with a dome on top and Bohemian vaults. Dientzenhofer’s exceptionally prolific and at the same time exquisite work influenced an entire generation of Czech artists and many other artists in Central Europe.