Architectural Designs Attributed to Simon Pitz in the Collection of the Jesuit Archive in Glatz

Abstract

Simon Pitz (1592–1625) was a Jesuit architect providing designs for numerous Jesuit buildings in Czechia, Moravia, Silesia and Poland. His oeuvre was known from several designs preserved in archives in Czechia, as well as the Jesuit Archive in Cracow (some of which were published in both Czech and Polish literature). An inventory in this order’s archive in Glatz (pol.: Kłodzko), drawn in 2018, revealed some previously unknown designs by this architect, some of which show alternative versions of designs already linked with Pitz, others can be attributed to him on the basis of distinctive architectural motifs or details. The article presents some of these previously unknown drawings by the architect, preserved in Polish archives, among others: alternative designs for the Jesuit church in Jitschin, additional designs of the college and church in Königgrätz, Jesuit novitiate (seminary) in Böhmisch Krumau and five versions of designs for the church in Komotau. Some designs may have been developed for Kuttenberg – they depict a huge complex of buildings (approx. 182 by 104 m), with a church surrounded by five courtyards. Designs preserved in Glatz indicate also that Pitz was the author of the Jesuit church in Lutsk, which has been previously linked with Giacomo Briano. At the present state of knowledge it can be concluded that Pitz’s legacy is among the largest and most interesting collections of designs by Jesuit architects active in Central Europe in the seventeenth century.