A lavishly illustrated guide to Baroque Prague.
Lushly illustrated with more than two hundred color plates, including
both historical images and contemporary photographs of architectural
exteriors, Baroque Prague is an excursion through Prague from the
defeat of Czech Protestants at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 to
the philosophical era of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. Art
historian Vít Vlnas explores both the material and spiritual
transformations the city went through during this boisterous period,
treating the Baroque epoch as a cultural phenomenon vital to the current
genius loci of the great Central European capital. He guides readers
through both the city itself and equally important Baroque monuments
outside of the historical city center. A highly readable introductory
study, as well as a work for experienced scholars of the history of
Bohemia, Baroque Prague is an exciting homage to Europe's great "city
of a hundred spires," and shows how a place's storied past informs its
present soul.