Journal ARS 33 (2000) 1-3

Zuzana KARASOVÁ

Stavby veží a ich dostavby v teórii a praxi
[Buildings of Towers and Their Completion in the Theory and Practice]

(Summary)

I. Buildings of towers were influenced by aesthetic opinions both directly and indirectly: directly in forms of theoretic interpretations of ideal buildings and indirectly in some historical periods, that were fond of buildings of towers. The Greeks during all their classical period and the Romans during all their history didn't build real towers. The Gothic period, which was the period of extremely high towers (better said so called steeples) has proved, that a tower is the synonym of the gothic spirit. Villard de Honnecourt in his famous illustrated book of patterns claimed the aesthetic valuation of the north tower of Laon's Cathedral and described also the illustration of one clock tower, which reminds superpositions of various parts of towers by L. B. Alberti, which he created later. Aesthetic theses of Alberti influenced the buildings of towers of the English architect Sir Christopher Wren (second half of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century). During the 19th century Viollet-le-Duc, J. Ruskin and I. Henszlmann criticized first of all the articulation of the same big parts of the Romanesque and the Gothic towers. We can say that if aesthetic theories were aimed at solving the question of proportions and the question of the relationship of the figures of towers to the mass of buildings, then the first projects of renovation and rebuilding of towers was aimed at solving the question of architectural form. Due to relative uselessness of buildings of towers exactly here were created good conditions for the preservation of the style of origin. The earliest example of completing some towers in the Gothic Revival is the Tom Tower, Christ Church, Oxford (1681 - 1682) by Sir Christopher Wren. While saving form danger the western spires of the Lincoln's Cathedral, James Gibbs was in 1725 perhaps the first, who gave the real report on the state of monument.

II. Since 40-ties of the 19th century the completing of church towers became the leading motive of the care of monuments of that time. Even the completing of church towers became the synonym of the reconstruction. In the sphere of care of monuments it helped to spread the knowledge in technique and technical imitation of medieval architectural form. It helped also to create close connection between the completing of medieval towers and the building of Neo-Gothic ones. Although Ernst Bacher declared the thesis, that we should understand the construction of western towers of the Dome in Regensburg, the Dome in Cologne and innumerable other projects of the same sort first as a political manifesto and second as an intervention of care of monuments, perhaps we could understand it rather in conditional way. From this point of view the construction of western towers of Prague St Vitus Cathedral, which was realized by J. Mocker, seems to be problematic. In this case it is hard to find out, if it was a political manifesto, when the idea of completing originated in 1844 and the western towers were built only in 1882 - 1892, when the situation was essentially different. It is true, that all the restoration of the above mentioned cathedral was completed to the St Wenceslas' Millennium in 1929, but the western towers had already been built 37 years. Also when we make evaluation of the most important completing or rebuilding of towers during the 19th century, those ones, which were made according to the medieval plan, as it was in Cologne or Ulm, seem to be more complicated due to the problem of " originality", one of the main problems of the Historicism and the care of monuments of the 19th century.