Zprávy památkové péče 2017, 77(1-2):10-17

Reconstruction of the landscape. The Most Basin in the late 18th century

Kristýna Drápalová

Institut plánování a rozvoje hl. m. Prahy

The article starts by defining the Baroque cultural landscape as formulated by Mojmír Horyna, i. e. a landscape deliberately composed by dominating features placed on exposed areas and interconnected by a sophisticated network of paths and viewpoints. Such a composition is supposed to subordinate the landscape to a higher spiritual order. The study examines this phenomenon using the example of the Most Basin, an area covering around 240 km2. This landscape was devastated during the 20th century, but in the 17th and 18th centuries still had a strong and distinctive identity, being one of the richest and most cultured regions of Bohemia.
The area in question is demarcated by the cities of Most and Ústí nad Labem in one direction and the Ore Mountains (Krušné hory) and river Bílina in the other. The first step in exploring the landscape in the Baroque period must logically be an attempt at its reconstruction. The condition of the landscape is depicted in maps and text, specifically from the year 1783. The primary basis for creating the study was a catalog of heritage sites occurring in the landscape, including those that were created before the 17th and 18th centuries. The second step was to attempt to reconstruct the urban situation of the study area by plotting structures in the map, drawn at a scale of 1 : 28,575. A key basis for creating the map was the first Josephinian mapping from 1783. Based on the catalog, more than six hundred structures were placed into the map. Their urbanistic relationships were marked as part of the last step, including significant landscape effects. The map thus also captured tree-lined alleys, castle parks, places of pilgrimage, and visual axes.
Based on the collected data, it was then possible to monitor the inclusion of religious buildings, aristocratic residences, and smaller monuments (chapels, crosses) into the landscape and to reach quite interesting conclusions.
Larger sacral objects, including several important pilgrimage sites, undoubtedly played the role of significant landscape dominant in many cases. The survey, however, showed that only a minimal number of them are newer Baroque buildings (only 5 out of 70), while the vast majority of these carefully selected landscape dominants were created earlier, mostly in the Middle Ages.
The situation among aristocratic residences is partly similar, however here - especially in the case of Duchcov - there was a fundamental transformation from a small residence into a larger complex with a garden. It is these complexes - Duchcov as well as particularly Jezeří, but the monastery in Osek was also composed in this way - that formed the most significant and largest landscape changes by means of their large gardens. Nonetheless, they were always clearly enclosed areas; it would be difficult to claim their sophisticated integration into the context of the wider landscape.
The often-mentioned phenomenon associated with the Baroque, the composition of tree-lined alleys and major path connections, also proves to be problematic. Path networks as such originated much earlier in history, however the planting of alleys was enacted as law only in 1752, while in the monitored period it commenced with the early 19th century.
The development of small monuments in the landscape, such as statues and crucifixes, was extraordinary. Period maps and illustrations suggest that only a remnant of their original state has been preserved until now. Even here, however, the question remains as to what extent this was a genuine Baroque phenomenon, and to what extent the 17th and 18th centuries followed up on work done in the past.
Based on the knowledge gained, the article concludes that the "Baroque landscape" in its sovereign form of composed parts of a region with all the aforementioned elements (dominant features with attached subdominants, compositional axes, a uniform schedule, etc.) is a phenomenon applicable to really only a few small and exceptional areas. The Jičín region, the area around Lysá nad Labem, and Kuks are not representative of the Czech countryside in the Baroque period. These parts of the landscape are an exceptional gesture, integrally connected with their patron who wished to present himself in this particular manner. It is therefore not possible to extend the characteristics of these rare landscape formations to apply to the entire Czech countryside in the Baroque period.

Keywords: Baroque landscape, Most Basin, landscape dominants, Baroque architecture, landscape composition

Published: March 1, 2017  Show citation