Hospitaller Architecture in Central Europe: The Grand Prior of Bohemia

Abstract

This proposal deals with the study of the architecture of the Order of Malta in Prague and it wants to structure a project of knowledge for a territorial and cultural heritage. The scientific approach is based on the comparison of documents (conserved in central archives both in Rome and La Valletta) and architecture already existing, with particular attention to the detailed analysis of the work of art. Attention is given to the purposes of knowledge, management and conservation of the heritage.This project finds its place in a research of history and documentation of architectural heritage and environment. History and a multi-disciplinary research method are also the foundation of all forms of protection and enhancement. A cognitive-critical action is needed in the analysis of historic and artistic context: some historians deal with the heritage of Malta, but often with different specific approaches without an overall look. A history of the Hospitaller architecture in Prague is still to be studied in its typologies.Complementary visions may open new points of view on research and find the innovative perspective with a multidisciplinary method: theory and practice converge in representations of the architecture of the Order, in a milieu quite different from the historical context of the Sixteenth Century. Analysis of the early history of the Grand Prior of Bohemia has only appeared very recently. A model for the creation of Hospitaller houses could be postulated only through an examination of local conditions and even the evolution of provincial hierarchies could be studied. The penetration of Eastern European society by the Crusade ideology has to be examined as a necessary background to the reassessment of the early activity of military orders.