Concerning the Origin of the Onion Dome and Onion Spires in Central European Architecture

Abstract

THE O N I O N SHAPED SPIRES of the country and pilgrimage churches in Southern Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and the Dolomite mountain region of Italy are a characteristic part of these landscapes. They are found, to a lesser degree, in Poland and Hungary, and in the parts of Yugoslavia which before 1918 formed part of the Austrian empire. The distinctive design of these spires differs from the more elaborate tower terminations employed by architects on other structures during the i7th and I 8th centuries. No study explores the origin of the design, or the reason for its geographic distribution.1 Passing conjectures about Byzantine or Eastern originsin view of the resemblance to Russian and Greek Orthodox church spires and Islamic structures-are found, but only to note stylistic similarities, which are then not examined. Indeed, precisely this similarity is part of the interest in the subject. If we assume that a foreign stylistic element has been adopted, we would expect to see it made part of the general architectural design portfolio, and not be limited to country churches. Since these churches were constructed to celebrate and uphold the victory of the Catholic church over its Protestant adversaries, architects would not use a form that is the unmistakable hallmark of another deviation from victorious church doctrine, namely the Greek Orthodox. This relationship of architecture and doctrine also speaks against the use, as a model for oniondome structures, of a Western representative of Byzantine architecture, like S. Marco in Venice. Since the onion shape is not found except in the geographical areas mentioned, and there only in limited examples, it is reasonable to seek the origin of the design in a specific place. This approach turned out to be fruitful. Evidence in the form of a dated city view reveals that as early as I56z tower helmets or spires of definite onion shape existed in Prague, employed for both sacred and secular architecture: the small towers placed at the corners of the terminal platform of the main tower of St. Vitus cathedral, the five towers of the no longer extant Rosenberg palace, and a water tower (Fig. i). A later (i6o6) and more skillful rendering of the palace on the south side of Hradschin castle and the water tower of the Old Town confirms the earlier view (Fig. z). The external fabric of Rosenberg castle, completed in 1549,