kaple svaté Anny (Panenské Břežany) Chapel

The chapel of St. Anne was established in the years 1705 to 1707 as a summer residence of benedictions from the monastery of St. George in Prague Chateau. The construction was initiated by a 60-year-old abbey František Helena Pieroni da Galiano, daughter of Italian mathematician and architect Giovani Pieroni. Construction according to plans by Jan Blažej Santiniho-Aichela was carried out by builder Filip Spannbrucker, from Austrian construction family. The whole building was built just three years ago and its costs amounted to 3895 gold and 20 tailors - the builder received a fee of 995 gold, Santini received 180 gold for plans and copyright supervision. These modest figures suggest that it was actually a small chapel, not a representative building.

The chapel is located in a park called the Upper Chateau, which served as a summer residence of the benedicts. Since its construction it has never been rebuilt with a single exception - in 1738 it added sacristy. The ideological concept of the building is thus preserved in complete originality and provides a rare insight into early Santini's work.

The architecture of the chapel is a matter of Santini's genius. It is his first radially developed ray centre, inspired by the great Italian Baroque Francesco Borromi and Guarin Guarini. The building has a ground plan based on concentrated circles: the foundation is a regular hexagon with a radius of 14 cubits, the three vertices of which are encased by smaller chapel formed by pentagon chapel. This number - three - is not random, because the chapel is dedicated to Saint Anne of the Self-Third.

From the outside, the building appears to be an equilateral triangle with lateral caples rather than as an централa building, which is defined in particular by the tambur dome. The facade is broken down by rusted presses with lisen frames. In the middle, a multi-wall dome is drawn out by the corner pillars. The roof lanterns above each side chapel have a five-sided shape with concave corners. The interior is surprised by the rich composition of the walls - wider and narrower parts are alternating, which give the impression of radial enlargement. The narrower walls are framed with editorials with monumental columns passing over two floors. On the ground floor and floor, these editorial fields are convex and open by arcades.

This chapel has become a prototype of the radiant headquarters which Santini has perfected in his top creation - especially in St. John Nepomuk's church on Green Mountain. He has repeatedly used Santini in later construction in Mladotice and Zvolí. He also introduced a new topic of "hollow pillar" through the editorial fields in the forehead into Czech top Baroque architecture.

The chapel is today protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic. The visitor will find evidence of how even a small, almost intimate building can carry the ideas of the highest architecture of its time.