Customers of the Buildings

Jan Blazej Santini Aichel was not a master of the Prague's masonry guild and that is why he could not enterprise in building although he obtained privilege of the Malá Strana town in the year 1705. That is why the number of his Prague's buildings is very small and he worked there only for those builders who were not liable to the guild rules, that is to say the noblemen and the ecclesiastic institutions. He also realized most of his projects outside Prague for the same type of customers. During the time about the year 1700, the rich monasteries originally of the medieval orders of Benedictines, Cistercians and Premonstrates experienced a period of prosperity. An extraordinary generation of excellent abbots of the Czech top baroque stood at the head of these large ecclesiastic institutions that time. The representatives of this generation came mostly from the lower or middle social classes and they were the men of remarkable intelligence, wide education, pragmatic and economical thinking, sophisticated artistic flair, deep and real devotion and manhood, active love for the entrusted monasteries. They also struggled for broad constructive and artistic improvement not only of the monasteries themselves, but also the whole domains. Most of them were born at the turn of the second and the third period of the 17^th century. About the year 1700, in the fourth decennium of their age, they went into the abbacy where they were engaged for three or four tens of years. Both from the point of view of the content as well as of the formally artistic aspect, they formed a specific artistic commission within the Czech baroque represented mainly by the Santini's architecture. The abbots of the Cistercian monasteries belonging the previous generation, Wolfgang Lochner from Zbraslav and Jindrich Snopek from Sedlec, were among the first Santini's employers. They soon recognized the artistic exceptionality of their master and recommended his work to further monasteries of their order, too: to the Abbot Eugen Tyttl in Plasy and to Vaclav Vejmluva in Zdar nad Sazavou. Santini worked systematically for the monasteries in Plasy and in Zdar since about 1706 till his death in 1723. Apparently, he had also personal friendly relations with the Abbots Tyttl and Vejmluva. He created number of designs for the Plasy monastery and for the Zdar monastery, some of them were realized by his successors - the architect Ondrej Kondel from Plasy or Frantisek Witinhofer working in Zdar - still years after the master's death. It is evidenced in writing that the successor of Snopek in Sedlc, the Abbot Bonifac Blahna, recommended Santini for the commission of reconstruction of the monastery church damaged by the fire to the Abbot Jeronym Hlina of the Premonstrate monastery (they were friends together since their students' years).

The Abbot Vaclav Vejmluva

Then, Vaclav Vejmluva probably also mediated prestigious commissions of other Moravian monasteries to Santini: reconstruction of the provostship of the Premonstrate monastery in Zabrdovice and the pilgrimage place in Krtiny near Brno as well as the big project of reconstruction and new building of the Benedictine provostship in Rajhrad. Finally, the Abbot Maurus Fintzguth of the Benedictine monastery in Kladruby near Stribro announced a design competition for reconstruction of the monastery church in 1710 and call on the most significant Prague's architect of that time: Krystof Dientzenhofer and Jan Blazej Santini Aichel. As we know from his letter to the Abbot Emilian Koterovsky in Svaty Jan pod Skalou (Saint John under the Rock), he chose the Santini's design to be realized although it was more expensive.

Work for the large ecclesiastic institutions (let's remind at least the Theatine college in Prague, the monastery of the Benedictines by St. George in Prague, the bishopric in Hradec Kralove) occupies most part of the Santini's work. Santini had less so systematic customers among the secular, noble building contractors. In this connection, it is necessary to mention in particular Norbert Leopold, the Count Kolowrat-Libstejnsky and both his sons for who he built in Prague, Rychnov nad Kneznou, Dolni Rocov or Destne, or Jeronym the Count Colloredo-Wallsee. Surely the most beautiful castle building of Jan Blazej Santini Aichel is the Castle Karlova Koruna (Charles's Crown) in Chlumec nad Cidlinou. He built it for Frantisek Ferdinand the Count Kinsky during the last years of his life.