Prague Castle from the Rampart Gardens: Pacassi’s Plecnik’s Bull stair.

buildigs, penetrated by

Bull stair, looking across Plecnik’s Rampart Gardens and pyramid to dome of St Nicholas Church.

national and cultural identity is far from new in Eastern Europe. In the late 19th century there were revivals of local and ‘national’ architectural styles in revolt against the empires of not only Russia and Austro-Hungary, but also against the dominant classicism which was the architectural expression of these empires. The National Theatre and Museum in Prague, and the Millennial buildings (Basilica, Houses of Parliament etc.) in Budapest are visible symbols of these National Revivals. In Slovenia, a similar development of national identity took place against the background of the destructive Ljubljana earthquake of 1895. This earthquake spared the important remains of the Roman town of Emona, which remain a very visible feature of Ljubljana. These elements came together in the work of the Slovenian architect Joze Plecnik, a pupil of Otto Wagner. Plecnik’s work provides fascinating lessons in both the possibilities and limits of conservation as a dynamic way of creating and enhancing political and cultural identity.

After initial projects in Vienna,

Plecnik moved to Prague to teach at the School of Applied Arts. In 1919 he was invited to become a professor at the new University of Ljubljana, and in 1920 the first president of democratic Czechoslovakia, T.G.Masaryk, asked him to work on Prague Castle and its gardens. Plecnik’s brief was to transform what had been the feudal symbol of Hapsburg dominance into the visible expression of the new democratic state. In his political testament, Masaryk stated: “The main aim of the renovation is to make the castle aproper seatfora democraticpresident. At every level the design should express simplicity, but in a noble and artistic way, symbolising our natural independence and democracy. The people see the castle as a symbol of state. Its transformation from a representation of monarchy to a representation of democracy should therefore be the responsibility of both president and government.” The outward aspect of the Castle was forbidding, with the southern gardens enclosed by a fortification wall, and St Vitus’ Cathedral (still being finished) enclosed by Pacassi’s baroque buildings built for the Em-

press Maria Theresa. Plecnik opened up the gardens to give views out over the city; in a stroke of genius, he created the Bull staircase, which descends three floors from the internal courtyard to the newly opened gardens below, and links Peter Parler’s great south door of the Cathedral on an axis to Dientzenhofer’s dome of St Nicholas in the lesser town. This axis is reinforced by the layout of Plecnik’s Ramparts garden. This is just one part of a large-scale and highly symbolic programme of works carried out for Masaryk over the next 13 years. Across the city, he also designed the spectacular and individual Church of the Sacred Heart (subject of a recent Phaidon Architecture in detail book).

Plecnik’s relationship with Masaiyk and his daughter Alice must have been one of the most interesting meetings of minds ever in an architect- client relationship. As a Slovene working in Prague, he was creating the new symbol of the Czechoslovak state, but only on a part-time basis. As a professor in Ljubljana, he was at the same time helping to create the first truly Slovenian school of art and architec

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