ROCOCO IN CENTRAL EUROPE

I have surveyed the lovely Rococo style in Germany, Eastern Europe (including Habsburg Galicia) and even England, but a notable omission is Central Europe, which for this purpose embraces what used to be the greater part of the Habsburg Empire - modern Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and, now Romanian, Transylvania. Rococo thrived here too, but mainly in majestic, Baroque public or ecclesiastical buildings, rather than in remote country spots as so often encountered in South Germany.

Transylvania was lost by Hungary at Versailles and there were fine imperial cities at Sibiu (Hermannstadt) and the fortified citadel of Sighisoare (Schässburg). Baroque buildings abound and a 19^th century pastiche of Rococo is to be found in the spectacular Carpathian royal hunting lodge of Peleş Castle.

Rococo features at Peles Castle, Transylvania

Hungary itself has rather thin Rococo pickings as Budapest is a mainly 19^th century Neo-Classical city and other places used traditional Magyar designs. But the St John Nepomuk church at Papá is authentically Rococo and the famous Gerbeaud Café in Budapest, although a 19^th century confection, exudes the Rococo spirit.

Gerbeaud Cafe, Budapest

                                         

St John Nepomuk, Papa, Hungary

Moving North to Slovakia, the delightful Danubian city of Bratislava (Pressburg) has a fine collection of Rococo churches, like Holy Trinity, and also the Mirburg Palace, now an art gallery, and above all the stately 1760 presidential Grassalkovich Palace.

Grassalkovich Palace, Bratislava

Holy Trinity, Bratislava, Slovakia

Going west to Prague in ancient Bohemia, with its incomparable and unspoilt situation on the broad River Vltava, every tourist crosses the lovely Charles Bridge and makes his way up the steep road of the Lesser City to the Hradcany Castle and St Vitus Cathedral. On the way down is the sumptuous Rococo church of St Nicholas, Prague in the Lesser Town Square. It is a full-blooded Rococo church completed in 1755 by the Dientzenhofers, father and son, with lavish decoration from other artists; a great sight.

Interior, St Nicholas, Prague

Pulpit, St Nicholas, Prague

             

Going south, we enter the Baroque and Rococo heartland of Austria and perched on a rocky outcrop by the Danube stands the greatest of all Rococo monasteries, the Benedictine Melk Abbey. The huge building, designed by Jacob Prandtauer and completed in 1736, is decorated and embellished like a royal palace.

Ceiling of the Marble Hall by J M Rottmayr, Melk Abbey, Austria

Interior of the Abbey Church at Melk

 After this overpowering richness, we can pass by the beauties of Salzburg before tackling imperial Vienna itself. Although the Vienna of the Ringstrasse is 19^th century, the great Karlskirche beckons completed in 1737 to the plans of J B Fischer v Erlach and his son Joseph. The Emperor Charles had the church built in honour of the Roman St Charles Borromeo after a plague hit Vienna (the front is flanked by a replica of Trajan’s Arch).

Altar at the Karlskirche, Vienna

 I emphasise that Rococo is not all saintly devotion and the pursuit of pleasure was one of the aims it sponsored. Just outside Vienna is the Habsburg Versailles, the magnificent Schönbrunn Palace much infused with Rococo delights, first planned as a hunting lodge by J B Fischer v Erlach, but later extended as a summer retreat by the Empress Maria Theresa. The Habsburg court then and later was highly formal and this stiffness contrasts with the architectural conviviality of the Palace. One hopes they managed to unbend a little.

The Old Lacquer Room at Schonbrunn, Vienna

Interior at Schonbrunn, Vienna

 I have only briefly sketched in some of the Rococo highlights of Central Europe, but this style brought a distinctive and memorable beauty to the whole area and will always generate immense pleasure.

SMD

16.01.13

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2013