European architecture in the 19th century. Architecture of Europe XVII - early XIX centuries
This old continent has many amazing places that still impress tourists and local residents. No matter what you are talking about, Europe offers its visitors a lot of beauty, and one of the best ways to see the beauty is to experience modern European architecture.
Many wonderful architects come up with designs, putting all their effort and imagination into creating extraordinary buildings that will impress viewers for a long time. In many European countries you can see similar modern architectural masterpieces, so you, as a tourist, have something to see while traveling around Europe. We have selected ten buildings created in the spirit of modern architecture. Take a look, you will definitely like something, and next time you travel, include it in your itinerary!
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10Location: Prague, Czech Republic
"The Dancing House" is also known as "Ginger and Fred", named after the famous dancers of the golden era of Hollywood, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The building was designed by architects Vlado Milunic and Frank Gehry, construction began in 1992 and was completed in 1996.
During this time, the building was criticized as it differed significantly from the typical architecture of Prague. The building consists of two parts - one static and one dynamic (dancing part). In fact, they represent Czechoslovakia's transition from communist rule to parliamentary democracy.
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9"New Customs" (Der Neue Zollhof)
Location: Dusseldorf, Germany
Der Neue Zollhof or “New Customs House” consists of three buildings. All of them are located in the German city of Dusseldorf in the harbor next to the Rhine River. The buildings are unique due to their geometric shapes and unusual window openings. For the façade of these three buildings, different materials. The building in the center is covered with metal panels, the eastern and tallest building is clad in plaster, and the western building has a red brick façade.
Thanks to the attractive facades of all three, and especially the metal building, they are popular among tourists. Der Neue Zollhof was designed by Frank Gehry and completed in 1998.
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8
Location: Brussels, Belgium
The Atomium is located in the capital of Belgium, Brussels, and is a fragment of an iron crystal lattice, magnified 165 billion times! The building that now houses the museum was built in 1958 for the World's Fair in Brussels and represents the belief in scientific progress. The Atomium was designed by architects Andre and Jean Polak, who worked together with engineer Andre Waterkein.
At the end of the exhibition, the building was supposed to be dismantled, but the unique and futuristic architecture won the hearts of many people and is still doing so successfully, so it was decided to leave the building.
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7Location: Malmo, Sweden
This unusual building is located in the south of Sweden in the city of Malmo. Turning Torso is an amazing neo-futuristic skyscraper. This house is considered the tallest in all of Scandinavia! The project was designed by the famous Spanish architect and sculptor Santiago Calatrava. The idea for such a skyscraper appeared thanks to one of Calatrava’s sculptures, which depicts a twisted human torso.
The building was completed in 2005 and ten years later, it won a "10 Year Award" from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The height of “Turning Torso” reaches 190 meters. This is a residential building with 147 apartments. Thanks to this height, its residents can enjoy amazing views of Malmö and Copenhagen across the Øresund Strait.
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6Prince Philip Science Museum
Location: Valencia, Spain
The Prince Philip Science Museum is one of the buildings of the cultural and architectural complex “City of Arts and Sciences” in Valencia. The complex was designed by the Spanish architect and sculptor Santiago Calatrava and opened in 2000. The museum has three floors that cover 8.000 square meters. There are several regular exhibitions here, covering many areas of science, technology, climate and art.
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5Cube houses
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Cube houses are located in Rotterdam and were originally built as ordinary residential buildings. But thanks to their unique appearance, the buildings attracted many visitors who were curious about what these cube houses looked like from the inside. One of the owners decided to open his house to visitors, and his cube is today known as the Kijk-Kubus Museum.
The man behind this masterpiece is the architect Pita Bohm, who designed the first series of cubic houses in Helmond in the mid-1970s, and then created a second project in Rotterdam in the early 1980s.
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4Kunsthaus
Location: Graz, Austria
The Austrian city of Graz has acquired an alien look thanks to a building that was built in 2003 as part of the European Capital of Culture program. We mean Kunsthaus Graz! Having such a modern appearance, the building definitely stands out among its Baroque neighbors. The architects of this masterpiece are Colin Fournier and Peter Cook.
Since 2003, Kunsthaus Graz has been an architectural landmark of the city. In fact, it's now a gallery contemporary art, visitors can see art exhibits here ranging from the 1960s to the present day, including films, photographs and new media.
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3
Location: Montpellier, France
Located in the French city of Montpellier. This theater really looks like a decorated wooden box! Built in 2013 by architects from A+ Architecture, the theater has a very interesting appearance with wooden patterns in the harlequin style. At night, thanks to multi-colored lighting built into the façade, the building takes on an even more amazing appearance.
The theater is named after the famous French novelist Jean-Claude Carrier, which makes this theater truly special. In addition, it is built in such a way that it absorbs much less energy than any analogue of the same size.
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2
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Kuggen is a colorful, cylindrical building designed by Swedish architects Gert Wingårdh and Jonas Edblad for Wingårdh Arkitektkontor. The building is located in Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city, and belongs to Chalmers University of Technology (lucky students!).
The facade is made of terracotta panels in six shades of red and two green, which look different depending on the angle at which you look at them and the amount of natural light at a given moment.
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1Kunsthofpassage
Location: Dresden, Germany
At first you might think that this building doesn't look that special compared to the others on our list, but what makes it unique is that the house plays music every time it rains! Thanks to a system of gutters and funnels attached to the building's facade, the Kunsthofpassage is one of the main attractions of Dresden, Germany. The musical building was designed by sculptor Annette Pavla and designers Christoph Rossner and Andre Tempel.
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Conclusion
This was an article TOP 10 most unusual modern buildings in Europe. Thank you for your attention!
History of architecture of Western Europe V-XV centuries. In this thousand-year era of the emergence, flourishing and decline of feudal relations, rich in shocks, saturated with acute socio-economic and cultural-historical contradictions, the main contours of the modern political map of Europe were formed, the preconditions were created for the rapid development national cultures European peoples.
The crisis of the slave-owning mode of production, the uprising of slaves and peoples oppressed by Rome, the invasion of the shattered Roman Empire by Germanic and Slavic tribes led to the 4th-5th centuries. to its final collapse and to the emergence on its ruins of a number of “barbarian” state formations, which developed under the conditions of the formation of new production relations, which were based on large feudal land ownership and the labor of peasants who fell into personal, serf-dependence on the feudal lords.
The stormy process of destruction of the old, slave-owning world and the emergence of a new, feudal one, was directly and clearly reflected in the superstructural sphere of material and spiritual culture. The crisis of the slave system already in the first centuries of our era caused the collapse of Roman ideology and the rapid spread of new beliefs, especially early Christianity, as the religion of slaves and the dispossessed. Duality public consciousness and alarming uncertainty paralyzed the forces that once fed lush art late antiquity.
The steady decline of the economy and chronic wars completely stopped construction. With the disappearance of the political and economic prerequisites for development, one after another, well-appointed Roman cities, which for centuries had served as the main breeding grounds of Roman civilization throughout the Mediterranean basin, fell into disrepair. Many of the Roman cities were destroyed by invasions of ancient tribes of the Germans and Slavs. This dealt the final blow to ancient culture.
But along with the feudal world, which arose from the ruins of the slave system, a new culture was born, fertilized by creative energy and nourished by the own traditions of young peoples. Developing in the process of a brutal struggle between progressive and reactionary forces, it spread east of the Rhine and north of the Danube, far beyond the borders of the former Roman Empire, into countries that had never known either the Roman yoke or Roman civilization. The deeply folk monuments of this culture are among the greatest achievements of mankind.
The emergence of “barbarian” states (V-VI centuries), a short-term flourishing (VIII century) and subsequent collapse (IX century) of the Carolingian empire, devastating raids of the Hungarians and Normans. (IX century), the conquest of England by the Norman barons (XI century), the emergence and development of the states of Eastern Europe (IX-XI centuries), the Crusades (XI-XIII centuries), the Spanish Reconquista (VIII-XV centuries), peasant uprisings and the struggle of urban communes for their liberties (XI-XIII centuries), feuds between German emperors and popes (XI-XIII centuries), endless feudal wars, which throughout the Middle Ages exhausted peoples already suppressed by the oppression of prevailing land relations , like all complex socio-economic processes caused by the constant clash of centrifugal and centripetal forces and the desire of the emerging state to overcome chaos feudal fragmentation, - all this left its mark on the material and spiritual culture of medieval Europe.
The church played a huge role in the life of medieval society, serving as the most important support for feudalism and, according to F. Engels’ definition, acting as the most general synthesis and the most general sanction of the existing feudal system. Having subjugated philosophy, science, literature and art, it entangled all aspects of the life of medieval man, who was generally ignorant and superstitious. Over many centuries, the Catholic Church developed both the very system of its doctrine in relation to the requirements of the feudal exploitation of the masses, and the ritual addressed to the psyche, suppressed by superstition.
But “a religion that subjugated the Roman world empire and for 1800 years dominated the largest part of civilized humanity cannot be dealt with simply by declaring it a nonsense concocted by deceivers. In order to deal with it, it is necessary first to be able to explain its origin and its development, based on those historical conditions under which it arose and achieved dominance" (F. Engels. Bruno Bauer and primitive Christianity. - K. Marx and F. Engels. Works, 2nd ed., vol. 19, p. 30).
European architecture of the 15th - early 19th centuries
Italian Renaissance and Baroque architecture
In the XIII-XIV centuries. the cities of Northern Italy become the gates of vibrant maritime trade, taking away the role of Byzantium as an intermediary between Europe and the exotic East. The accumulation of money capital and the development of capitalist production contribute to the rapid formation of bourgeois relations, which are already cramped within the framework of feudalism. A new, bourgeois culture is being created, choosing ancient culture as its model; her ideals get new life, which gave the name to this powerful social movement - Renaissance, t.v. Revival. The powerful pathos of citizenship, rationalism, and the overthrow of church mysticism gave birth to such titans as Dante and Petrarch, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas More and Campanella. In architecture, the Renaissance appeared at the beginning of the 15th century. Architects are returning to clear, logical order systems. Architecture takes on a secular and life-affirming character. Lancet Gothic vaults and arches give way to cylindrical and cross vaults and vaulted structures. Antique examples are carefully studied, and the theory of architecture is developed. The previous Gothic style had prepared a high level of construction technology, especially lifting mechanisms. The process of development of architecture in Italy in the 15th-17th centuries. conditionally divided into four main stages: Early Renaissance - from 1420 to the end of the 15th century; High Renaissance - end of the 15th - first quarter of the 16th century, later Renaissance -XVI century, Baroque period - XVII century.
Early Renaissance Architecture
The beginning of the Renaissance in architecture is associated with Florence, which reached the 15th century. extraordinary economic prosperity. Here, in 1420, the construction of the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore began (Fig. 1, F1 - 23). The work was entrusted to Filippo Brunellechi, who managed to convince the city council of the correctness of his competition proposal. In 1434, the octagonal pointed dome, 42 m in diameter, was almost completed. It was built without scaffolding - workers worked in the cavity between the two shells of the dome, only its upper part was erected using suspended scaffolding. The lantern above it, also according to Brunelleschi's design, was completed in 1467. With the completion of construction, the height of the building reached 114 m. In 1421, Brunelleschi began rebuilding the Church of San Lorenzo and constructing the Old Sacristy - a small square chapel. The chapel was the first experience in Renaissance architecture of working on centric buildings. In 1444, according to Brunelleschi's design, a large city building was completed - the Orphanage (orphanage). The portico of the Orphanage is interesting as the first example of a combination of columns supporting arches with a large order of framing pilasters. Brunelleschi also built the Pazzi Chapel (1443), one of the most elegant works of the early Renaissance. The chapel building, completed with a dome on a low drum, opens to the viewer with a light Corinthian portico with a wide arch. In the second half of the 15th century. Many palaces of the city nobility are being built in Florence. Michelozzo completed the construction of the Medici Palace in 1452 (Fig. 2); in the same year, according to Alberti's project, the construction of the Rucellai Palace was completed, Benedetto da Maiano and Simon Polayola (Cronac) erected the Strozzi Palazzo. Despite certain differences, these palaces have a common spatial design: a tall three-story building, the rooms of which are grouped around a central courtyard framed by arched galleries. The main artistic motif is a rusticated or decorated wall with majestic openings and horizontal rods corresponding to the floor divisions. The structure was crowned with a powerful cornice. The walls were made of brickwork, sometimes with concrete filling, and faced with stone. In addition to the vaults, beam wooden structures were used for interfloor ceilings. Arched window ends are replaced by horizontal lintels. Much work on the study of the ancient heritage and the development of the theoretical foundations of architecture was carried out by Leon Batista Alberti (works on the theory of painting and sculpture, “Ten Books on Architecture”). Alberti's largest works as a practice are, in addition to the Rucellai Palace, the reconstruction of the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence (1480), where volutes, which became widespread in Baroque architecture, were first used in the composition of the facade, the church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua, the facade of which was solved by superimposing two order systems. Alberti's work is characterized by the active use of patterns of order divisions of the facade, the development of the idea of a large order covering several tiers of the building. At the end of the 15th century. the scope of construction is decreasing. The Turks, who captured Constantinople in 1453, cut off Italy from the East that traded with it. The country's economy is in decline. Humanism is losing its militant character, art is seen as a means of escape from real life to the idyll, grace and sophistication are valued in architecture. Venice, in contrast to the restrained architecture of Florence, is characterized by an attractive, open type city palace, the composition of the facade of which, with subtle, elegant details, retains Moorish-Gothic features. The architecture of Milan has retained the features of Gothic and serf architecture, reflected in civil architecture.
Rice. 1. Florence Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. 1434. Axonometric section of the dome, plan of the cathedral.
Rice. 2. Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence. 1452. Fragment of the facade, plan.
Activities related to Milan greatest painter and the Renaissance scientist Leonardo da Vinci. He developed several projects for palaces and cathedrals; a city project was proposed, in which, anticipating the development of urban planning science, attention was paid to the arrangement of water supply and sewerage, to the organization of street traffic in different levels. Of great importance for Renaissance architecture were his studies of the compositions of centric buildings and the mathematical basis for calculating the forces acting in building structures. Roman architecture of the late 15th century. was replenished with the works of Florentine and Milanese architects, who, during the period of decline of their cities, moved to Rome to the court of the pope. Here in 1485 the Palazzo Cancelleria was founded, made in the spirit of Florentine palaces, but devoid of the severity and gloomy asceticism of their facades. The building has elegant architectural details, fine ornamentation of the entrance portal and window frames.
High Renaissance Architecture
With the discovery of America (1492) and. The sea route to India around Africa (1498) shifted the center of gravity of the European economy to Spain and Portugal. The necessary conditions for construction were preserved only in Rome, the capital of the Catholic Church throughout feudal Europe. Here the construction of unique religious buildings was leading. The architecture of gardens, parks, and country residences of the nobility is developing. A significant part of the work of the largest architect of the Renaissance, Donato Bramante, is associated with Rome. The Tempietto in the courtyard of the Church of San Pietro in Montorio was built by Bramante in 1502 (Fig. 3). This small work of mature centric composition became the preparatory stage of Bramante's work on the plan for the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome.
Rice. 3. Tempietto in the courtyard of the Church of San Pietro in Montorio. Rome. 1502 General view. Section, plan.
The courtyard with a circular gallery was not implemented. One of the significant works on the development of the idea of a centric composition was the construction of the church of Santa Maria del Consoliazione in Todi, which has the utmost clarity of design concept and integrity of the internal space, designed according to the Byzantine scheme, but using frame ribs in the domes. Here, part of the spacer forces is balanced by metal ties under the heels of the spring arches of the sail. In 1503, Bramante began work on the Vatican courtyards: the Loggia courtyard, the Pigna garden and the Belvedere courtyard. He creates this grandiose ensemble in collaboration with Raphael. Design of the Cathedral of St. Peter's (Fig. 111), begun back in 1452 by Bernardo Rossolino, was continued in 1505. According to Bramante, the cathedral should have had the shape of a Greek cross with additional spaces in the corners, which gave the plan a square silhouette. The overall solution is based on a simple and clear pyramid-centric composition, crowned by a grandiose spherical dome. Construction started according to this plan was stopped with the death of Bramante in 1514. His successor, Raphael Santi, was required to lengthen the entrance part of the cathedral. The plan in the form of a Latin cross was more consistent with the symbolism of the Catholic cult. Among the architectural works of Raphael, the following have survived: Palazzo Pandolfini in Florence (1517), the partially built “Villa Madama” - the estate of Cardinal G. Medici, Palazzo Vidoni-Caffarelli, Villa Farnesina in Rome (1511), the design of which is also attributed to Raphael.
Rice. 4. Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome. Plans:
a - D. Bramante, 1505; b - Raphael Santi, 1514; c - A, da Sangallo, 1536; g - Minel Angelo, 1547
In 1527, Rome was captured and plundered by the troops of the Spanish king. The cathedral under construction acquired new owners who demanded a revision of the project. Antonio da Sangallo Jr. in 1536 returned to the plan in the form of a Latin cross. According to his design, the main façade of the cathedral is flanked by two tall towers; the dome has a higher rise, it is placed on two drums, which makes it visible from afar with the façade greatly pushed forward and the enormous scale of the building. Of Sangallo Jr.'s other works, the Palazzo Farnese in Rome (beginning in 1514) is of great interest. The third floor with a magnificent cornice and the decorative treatment of the courtyard were completed by Michelangelo after the death of Sangallo in 1546. In Venice, a number of projects were carried out by Sansovino (Jacopo Tatti): the library of San Marco, the reconstruction of the Piazzetta. Giorgio Vasari, famous biography writer outstanding artists, created Uffizi Street in Florence, which completed the composition of the ensemble of Piazza della Signoria.
Architecture of Western Europe At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the First World War, and the Great October Revolution socialist revolution the art of the dominant artistic movements in countries of developed capitalism begins to move to anti-realistic positions. However, with the growth of the revolutionary movement, a transition to a new stage in the development of realism, imbued with anti-bourgeois ideas, and then associated with socialist ideals, is planned. The process of its development is complex and contradictory, marked by the emergence of various stylistic forms and trends. Eiffel Tower, 1889, Built for the centenary of the French Revolution 
Gaudi.
Sagrada Familia Church Built since 1884, Barcelona Architecture. In the era of imperialism, the development of various types of art proceeds unevenly. While painting is going through a deep crisis, architecture is enjoying relatively favorable conditions compared to the 19th century. The social nature of production, the rapid growth of technology, the need for mass construction, the active struggle of the working class for their rights force capitalist states to intervene in the planning of architectural construction and necessitate solving problems of urban planning and ensembles. Architecture, unlike painting, - view art, inextricably linked with material production, With technical progress, satisfying the practical needs of society. It cannot be divorced from solving the problems posed by life. The eclecticism of the 19th century is being replaced by the search for a solid style based on the use of new structures and materials introduced into construction practice since the 1840s (steel, cement, concrete, reinforced concrete, frame system, huge coverings of the vaulted-dome system, suspended coverings, trusses , visors). The technical capabilities of the new architecture, its aesthetic strengths reflected not only the social nature of production in the era of imperialism, but created the material prerequisites for the flourishing of architecture in the future in the conditions of the elimination of private property and exploitation.
Private property and competition led to the manifestation of subjective arbitrariness. Hence the pursuit of fashionable, deliberately extravagant solutions. The architecture of bourgeois society is characterized by a contradictory interweaving of false and aesthetically progressive tendencies.
The harbinger of a new stage in the development of architecture was the Eiffel Tower (height 312 m), erected from prefabricated steel parts for the Paris World Exhibition of 1889 according to the design of engineer Gustav Eiffel as a sign of the entry into a new era of the machine age. Devoid of utilitarian meaning, the openwork tower soars easily and smoothly into the sky, embodying the power of technology. Its dynamic vertical plays an important role in the city's skyline. The grandiose arch of the tower’s base seems to unite the distant vistas of the city landscape visible through it.
This building had a stimulating effect on the further development of architecture. An interesting monument of this time was the Gallery of Machines built from metal trusses with a glass ceiling spanning 112.5 m, built for the same World Exhibition (the gallery was dismantled in 1910), which had no equal in the perfection of its design. The first residential building in which a new building material was used - reinforced concrete - was built in Paris (1903) by O. Perret. The design of the building, which determined its light logical composition, was revealed for the first time on the facade. The hangars of the Parisian suburb of Orly (1916-1924) with folded vaults of parabolic shape were of great importance for the further development of architecture. Based on the type of their durable structures, various systems of reinforced concrete coverings were created - folded vaults and domes several centimeters thick with spans of about 100 m.
However, at first, and in purely engineering buildings, eclecticism tendencies often appeared - new materials and new designs were not thought through aesthetically, they were combined with elements of old styles. Art Nouveau architectureMuseum of Art 1912-1920, HelsinkiSagrada Familia Cathedral from 1884, BarcelonaCasa Mila 1905-1910, BarcelonaResidential building 1918-1919, Turku Art Nouveau style. In 1890-1900, a movement called Art Nouveau from the French word “modern” spread in different countries. Its creators, on the one hand, strived for rational designs, using reinforced concrete, glass, facing ceramics, etc. On the other hand, modernist architects in Austria and Germany, Italy and France began to strive to overcome the dry rationalism of construction technology.
They turned to whimsical decorativism and symbols in the ornamentation of scenery, in paintings, sculpture of interiors and facades, to the deliberate emphasis on streamlined and curving, sliding forms and lines. Twisting patterns of metal frames of railings and staircases, balcony railings, bends of the roof, curvilinear shapes of openings, stylized patterns of curly seaweed and women's heads with flowing hair were often combined with freely recycled forms historical styles past (mainly Eastern or medieval styles - bay windows, Romanesque turrets, etc.), giving the buildings several romantic character. The Art Nouveau style expressed itself most fully in the individual construction of palaces, mansions and in the type of apartment building, giving preference to asymmetry in the grouping of building volumes and in the location of window and door openings. Art Nouveau influenced arts and crafts and the culture of everyday life. At the beginning of the 20th century, the expressiveness of the main structural elements intensified in modern architecture, and a desire appeared to identify their purpose and the characteristics of building materials in the composition of buildings.
The decisive turning point in the development of architecture came, however, after the First World War. Story foreign art Art of France. Parisian artists, sculptors, architects, engravers. History of foreign art.
From the Romanesque and Gothic eras of the Middle Ages to the present.
Development of European architecture at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 19th centuries. Baroque and classicism
With the previous architecture of the Renaissance, the new historical stage of architecture under consideration constitutes organically connected links in the complex development of a branched whole European architecture new time. In the 17th and 18th centuries. further creative development This architecture takes on different forms in the first third of the 19th century. comes to its historical conclusion. If the Renaissance spiritually liberated the individual and with the coming great cultural revolution, the collective mind and the centuries-old craft experience of medieval architecture retreated before the power of individual creative genius, then the era following the Renaissance was in the architecture of European countries a time of genuine brilliance of phenomenally bright creative individuals. If the Renaissance returned to architecture a subtle and flexible instrument of its art - the classical order - and thereby opened the way from the still epic greatness of Gothic to the new beauty of the “heroic” image, then the era that followed can least of all be reproached for the damage to this instrument. In the 17th and 18th centuries, not only perfect mastery of the classical order became universal, but its very principle was creatively modernized, so that in the face of other tasks, a different era, the order could become an effective weapon of architecture in a new way.
Architecture of Italy at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 19th centuries.
Chapter “Architecture of Italy at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 19th century.” section “Europe” from the book “General History of Architecture. Volume VII. Western Europe and Latin America. XVII - first half of the XIX centuries." edited by A.V. Bunina (chief editor), A.I. Kapluna, P.N. Maksimova.
The emergence of Baroque in Italy
Italy, which occupied in the XII-XIV centuries. leading place in Europe, by the beginning of the 17th century. found itself on the outskirts of its economic and political life. The decline of handicraft production and trade, and at the same time the weakening of the role of the urban bourgeoisie, led to the strengthening of the landed aristocracy and the church, without the support of which no social force could do at that time. The contrast between the unbridled luxury of the nobility and the difficult life of the impoverished peasant masses and artisans reached unprecedented severity. The economic decline of the country was aggravated by political intrigues and internecine wars that tore apart the small Italian principalities, and the oppression of landowners and absolutist rulers was intensified by the oppression of foreign conquerors who repeatedly invaded Italy throughout the 18th century. At the end of the 17th century, Habsburg Spain dominated Milan in the north, Naples and Sicily in the south, controlling the states located in between (the duchies of Mantua and Modena, Tuscany, Parma and the papal possessions). Control was exercised both through dynastic ties and through police measures, justified by increased robbery and vagrancy (direct consequences of the extreme impoverishment of the village). The few states that retained independence - the maritime republics of Genoa (with Corsica) and Venice (with its possessions in Istria, Dalmatia and the Ionian Islands) and the Duchy of Savoy, which extended to Nice - were in obvious decline. The transfer of Milan, Naples and Sardinia to Austria (1713) marked the end of Italy's political independence.
Urban planning in Baroque Italy
Baroque architecture cannot be understood in isolation from the urban planning of this era, since its characteristic tendencies and, above all, a new understanding of the ensemble established new relationships between the space of a square, street or garden with a building, which radically affected the composition of the latter. The economic crisis that gripped the country's trade and craft production had the greatest impact on the leading Italian cities, slowing down their growth and greatly complicating the implementation of broad urban planning initiatives. And yet, the need to renovate the cities that formed spontaneously in the Middle Ages required the continuation of what began at the end of the 15th and 1st half of the 16th centuries. measures to streamline the street network, clearing littered areas, developing vacant lots and urban water supply. These utilitarian requirements, determined by direct necessity, combined with ideological and political aspirations Catholic Church and secular rulers, who attracted to carry out their tasks the best masters, brought up on the achievements of two centuries of development of the advanced architectural and artistic culture of Italy, led to the remarkable development of urban planning art.
The early Baroque period in Italian architecture (late 16th - early 17th centuries)
Baroque in architecture, as in other arts, did not develop immediately and developed unevenly, acquiring a different character depending on local conditions and features. The cradle of architecture was Rome, where an architecture that was deeper in its ideological and emotional content and powerful in its forms developed. Intense construction activity here has never ceased (since the war and the sack of Rome in 1527). Talented craftsmen from various cities of Italy continued to come here, and the church and its princes spared no expense in reconstructing the city, erecting new buildings, decorating and decorating churches and palaces with precious materials, gilding, painting and sculpture. Baroque acquired a more refined, festive character in Genoa, Turin and Venice, which in the 18th century. remains one of the most important artistic centers in Italy and provides noticeable influence on the development of European culture as a whole. Florence - the cradle of the Renaissance - remains less susceptible to the features of the new style. But in Naples and Sicily, the Baroque flourishes rapidly and uniquely, although belatedly: the most striking works of the Baroque here date back to the 18th century, in many of them the Spanish influence is noticeable.
The flourishing of Baroque in Italian architecture (2nd third of the 17th - early 18th centuries)
From the 2nd third of the 17th century, the Baroque entered a period of full maturity, reaching its highest flowering in the architecture of papal Rome. This period is characterized by clear changes in the character of architecture, which is now distinguished by an unprecedentedly wide scope and impressive representativeness of compositions, the solemn grandeur of the external appearance and the splendor of the interiors. The restraining influence of the architectural treatises of the late Renaissance, with their characteristic academic rigorism, noticeably weakened, as did the religious intolerance characteristic of the first decades of the Counter-Reformation. Along with the work to complete the cathedral and St. Peter, which were supposed to serve to strengthen the prestige of the Catholic Church and give new shine to the halo surrounding its high priest and the papal curia, extensive private construction was also carried out in Rome. Representatives of the most powerful families of the Italian nobility who occupied the papal throne in the middle of the 17th century. (Urban VIII Barberini, 1633-1644; Innocent X Pamphili, 1644-1655, and Alexander VII of the Chigi family of bankers, 1655-1667), their numerous relatives and other major construction customers in Rome openly sought luxury and splendor for their palaces and villas, which, half a century earlier, would probably have attracted severe censure.
Classicism in Italian architecture (mid-18th - early 19th centuries)
In the middle of the 18th century, a turn from Baroque to Classicism began in Italian architecture. Signs of fundamental changes in the thinking of architects appear first in theoretical works and are reflected in practice only towards the end of the century. This temporary gap between theory and practice, which over the course of three centuries developed in Italy in an inextricable connection, shows, on the one hand, the narrowed economic opportunities that led to a sharp reduction in construction activity in the country, and on the other, the peculiar origins of Italian classicism, significantly differed from the classicism of absolutist France and England. The first consistent and very principled criticism of Baroque architecture was launched by the Franciscan monk Carlo Lodolli at the school for young Venetian nobles at the end of 1750 and at the very beginning of 1760. The thoughts of Lodolli, who criticized the Baroque for unjustified excesses and formalism, clearly demanded that architecture return to sober functionalism, were set out consistently only a quarter of a century after his death in a treatise by Andrea Memmo, but undoubtedly had a widespread influence long before that. Thus, one of Lodolli’s students, Algarotti, an adherent of traditional, i.e., Baroque, architecture, expounds and criticizes the views of his teacher in works published in the 1760s. * In them, Lodolly appears as a “purist” and “rigorist”, fighting against excessive decoration and illusionistic tricks.
Architecture of France during the era of absolute monarchy in the 17th-18th centuries.
The chapter on French architecture has two sections. Section I is devoted to the time of the absolute monarchy of the 17th-18th centuries, section II - to the architecture of the period of the Great French Revolution and the establishment of bourgeois rule at the beginning of the 19th century. Section I, covering two centuries, the era of the rise and fall of absolutism, is in turn divided into four periods. These periods, almost identical in duration, each last approximately 50 years and more or less correspond to the dates of the life and reign of the French kings. The division into periods is due to the fact that France changed its direction in architecture four times over the course of these two centuries. The stylistic changes that took place in all forms of art, including architecture, were closely related to the social changes taking place in France. The architecture reflected the spiritual quests and demands of various classes and estates of French society. It is significant that during this period the language of architectural forms did not lag behind the development of society. This is understandable, because architecture was deliberately used to prove the progressiveness of the feudal-absolutist order, on the one hand, and the freedom of the human person, on the other. Through all four periods there is a complex struggle between state system and individual human personality, which is widely and deeply reflected in architecture. This is how majestic ensembles arise, reflecting the idea of absolutism in artistic images, and at the same time small, exquisite architectural structures, commensurate with a person in their volumes and proportions.
Architecture of France during the reign of Henry IV - Louis XIII (1594-1643)
The reign of Henry IV of Bourbon (reign 1594-1610) sought centralization state power. To boost the economy, the government is building large manufactories and encouraging private enterprises to produce silk fabrics, tapestries, gilded leather for wallpaper, morocco, and porcelain. It gives privileges to foreign craftsmen and subsidies to domestic manufacturers. Much attention was paid to the construction of new houses, bridges and especially canals. After the end of the religious wars, the country changed a lot. Life concentrated in cities and castles expands into wide open spaces. New populated areas appear without fortifications. The nature of architecture itself is changing, in which during this period, along with new trends, Gothic and Renaissance-classical architectural forms and structures still coexist.
Urban planning in France in the first half of the 17th century.
French cities had very dense buildings, as if merging into a single stone massif; however, this did not prevent old cities from adapting to new living conditions: they were rebuilt, demolishing medieval buildings, in order to strengthen defense capabilities, combat epidemics and fires, while simultaneously striving for the architectural organization of the city as a whole. The development of a plan for an “ideal city” continues. However, in this, French architects, like their contemporaries in other countries, are completely dependent on the urgent needs of defense. New cities emerge both as fortified outposts (but now mainly on the outskirts of the state), and as industrial centers, and as residential cities. The latter are being built in conjunction with the resident palace, of which the city itself is part, planning subordinate to the palace.
Palaces and castles of France in the first half of the 17th century.
In the 17th century There is a process of degeneration of a fortified castle into an unfortified palace. During this period, the palace was already included in general structure city, and outside the city it is connected to an extensive park. At the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. close ties with Italy, deep interest in its culture and art, the luxury of its palaces and villas caused natural imitation in the highest French circles. But Baroque art was not widely developed throughout France. We can only talk about isolated baroque buildings, although for a number of French provinces and cities individual baroque motifs became deeply national: Languedoc, Montpellier, Eck, etc. French architects went through a rigorous school of practice. As a rule, they came from construction cooperatives or families of hereditary masons, united in corporations, strictly preserving their professional techniques, which dated back to the medieval traditions of Gothic. The constructive principles of Gothic were perfectly mastered by French architects, who were at the same time designers, practical builders and contractors. Hence the critical attitude towards everything brought in from the outside, including the Baroque. The interweaving of late Renaissance, Gothic and Baroque features with features of classicism is very characteristic of France in the 1st half of the 17th century. However, classicism from the end of the 16th century. up to mid-19th V. is the main direction, all the others accompany it.
Residential buildings in Paris in the first half of the 17th century.
At the beginning of the 17th century. in Paris, the growing need for housing caused widespread construction and settlement of new areas. However, almost nothing has reached us from ordinary urban development and hotels of this period - we know about them from theoretical works of the 1st half of the 17th century. By the end of the 16th century. In Paris, a type of hotel developed that dominated French architecture for two centuries, with a residential building between the courtyard and the garden. The courtyard, limited by services, faced the street, and the residential building was located in the back, separating the courtyard from the garden, as in the Carnavale Arch Hotel. Lesko (mid-16th century), rebuilt 100 years later by Mansart (Fig. 14). The same principle of planning in hotels of the early 17th century: Sully in Paris (1600-1620) on the street Antoine, architect. Jacques I Androuet-Ducerseau; Tubef on Rue Petit Champ. This layout had an inconvenience: the only courtyard was both front and utility. In the further development of this type, the residential and utility parts of the house are separated. In front of the windows of the residential building there is a front courtyard, and to the side of it there is a second, utility courtyard. The Liancourt Hotel (architect Lemuet) has such a courtyard.
Architecture of urban public buildings in France in the first half of the 17th century.
There were few purely administrative buildings at that time: these were mainly town halls and palaces of justice. In France, where royal power was strong, and municipal service in the 17th century. still small public buildings were small - they consisted of a meeting hall, several bureaus, an archive, a church, a hall for guards and police, and a prison. Rich residential buildings, converted into town halls, stood along the street next to other residential buildings. Such are the town halls in Avignon, Saulieu, and Poyères in Burgundy. New town halls in France were built on large areas, like the town hall at Larochelle (1595-1606). This magnificent building with statues on the facade, an open staircase and a small turret can serve as an example of provincial French “Baroque”, the origins of which come from ornamentation. Stricter than the form of the town hall in Trouet (1616, architect Louis Noble). Town Hall in Reims (1627) - still quite medieval building. The Senate of Paris overlooking the Rue Tournon is magnificent. Drawings of the interior of the Palaces of Justice in Paris and Rennes (S. de Brosses) have been preserved.
Architecture of religious buildings in France in the first half of the 17th century.
With the end of the religious wars, the restoration of destroyed churches and the construction of new ones immediately began. In Paris alone in the 1st half of the 17th century. More than 20 of them were erected. In the religious architecture of France of this time, which is very diverse, the traditions of Gothic and Renaissance are still strong: Notre Dame in Le Havre (1606-1608), Saint-Etienne-du-Mont in Paris, Saint Pierre in Auxerre and others. Baroque was not widely reflected in church architecture, although it paid tribute to it to some extent. The French Jesuits considered the baroque church of Il Gesu in Rome to be the ideal of beauty. French Jesuit architects, working first in Italy (Etienne Martellange and Tournel), introduced churches of the Il Gesu type in France. The influence of this Italian building certainly took place (the church in Rueli, in the city of Richelieu, etc.), but the degree of this influence is exaggerated. A number of churches built according to the Il Gesu plan have a completely different architectural appearance and differently organized facades. That's how churches are Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis in Paris, Jesuits in Blois, built by Marteliange, church in Avignon- Tournel (1620-1655), Saint Gervais in Paris- S. de Brossom and Meteso.
Architecture of France during the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715)
The absolutism of France, brilliantly reflected in the architecture of the 2nd half of the 17th century, also had reverse side medals. The costs of royal buildings and the maintenance of the court of Louis XIV - the “Sun King” - were completely beyond the budget of France. During the wars (1667, 1672, 1687), France lost a number of lands, and economically lost first place to England. By the end of the reign of Louis XIV, the national debt reached fabulous figures, tens of times higher than the country's annual budget. During the monarch's youth, Surintendent Colbert managed to strengthen and boost the French economy. Colbert paid much attention to the construction of cities and new industrial centers, the creation of the Academy of Architecture (1677). Francois Blondel was appointed director of the Academy, the first members were Liberal Bruant, Daniel Guitard, Antoine Lepautre, Francois Levot, Pierre Mignard, Francois D'Orbay. In 1675, J. A. Mansart received the title of academician, and in 1685, Pierre Bulle.
Urban planning in France during the reign of Louis XIV
The largest urban planner and military engineer of the 17th century. in France there was an architect. Vauban, who built 150 fortified cities. Some of them, like Brest, received further development. Vauban introduced a lot of new things into the science of fortification. Before him, fortified cities were defended by artillery, which could fire at the enemy even from the city center due to the presence of straight streets. Vauban improved the defense of the city with a system of ditches, bastions, and curtains. A fortified city, as a rule, had the shape of a regular polygon, surrounded by large loops of fortifications. In the city of Juning (1679), the area of defensive structures is equal to eight times the area of the residential part of the city. The cities of Longvin (1679) and Neuf-Brisac in Alsace (1698) were built by Vauban in the form of a regular octagon with a checkerboard layout; in the center there was a square square with entrances at the corners. The city of Rocroi was rebuilt by Vauban, preserving the radial ring system of streets and the surrounding boulevards. The system of new powerful fortifications gave the city the shape of an irregular pentagon.
Palaces and castles of France during the reign of Louis XIV
The Vaux-le-Vicomte castle was built in 1661 by Louis Levo (interiors - architect C. Lebrun; park - Andre Le Nôtre). This building still has a lot from earlier architecture: high roofs, separate over each volume; in the central part of the building, along the main facade, there is a floor order of rusticated columns. The entrance portal with a pediment decorated with reclining sculptures is reminiscent of the works of S. de Brosses or Ducersault. The interiors of the castle are magnificent. In the park, Le Nôtre first outlined an axial system of composition of flat parterres, subordinate to the palace. However, here the ponderous palace has not yet merged into a single organism with the park, and the axial development of the park from the palace, into the distance, into infinity, is disrupted by the transverse location of the pool at the end of the garden. These problems would be solved by Le Nôtre at Versailles. However, all this does not reduce the enormous artistic merit of this outstanding work France.
Parisian hotels during the reign of Louis XIV
In the rich residential buildings court nobility, as well as financial elites, the number of rooms increases and the layout becomes more complicated. During this period, several options arise for the layout of mansions according to the type of house between the yard and the garden. In a number of properties, the layout is asymmetrical, with the yard and garden located on one side, and residential and outbuildings on the other. These are the hotels in Paris: Ezelen - L. Levaux (Fig. 47, 1), houses on the street. Clery (Fig. 47, 2) and Juges Consul - Jean Richet, hotels of Amelo de Betsei - D. Gottard (Fig. 48,1), Montmorency - Jacques Moreau (Fig. 47,5). An example of a symmetrical solution is the Toad Hotel - L. Bruant. But, as a rule, with an asymmetrical plan, symmetry is maintained in the facade, often created by artificial techniques. In many hotels of the mid-17th century. features of a type of development that have not yet been completed are noticeable (hotels Amelo, Louvois, Chamois, etc.); the plans do not have a clear relationship between the parts. Searches in this direction (hotels Toad and Beauvais - Antoine Le Nôtre, Fig. 48.2) are fully resolved in the works of J. A. Mansart: hotels Lorge, Noel in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Mansart's house on the street. Tournel and house offered by Mansart as a model.
