34 ČLÁNKY ARTICLES UMĚNÍ  ART       1–2       LXIII       2015 PAVEL KALINA CZECH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY IN PRAGUE, FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE Carlo Fontana, Domenico Martinelli, and Georg Adam II of Martinitz Architectural Design, Architectural Collaboration and Aristocratic Representation around 1700 Carlo Fontana and Bohemia In the second half of the 1690s, Carlo Fontana, the foremost architect of late 17th-century Rome, 1 created three architectural projects for structures that were to be built in the Czech Kingdom, specifcally in Bohemia. Te frst was for Liechtenstein Palace near Landskron (Lanškroun) in the northernmost part of the border area between Bohemia and Moravia. Fontana also produced plans for two palaces in Prague, both in the Hradčany district close to Prague Castle. While his project for Sternberg Palace was not built either, Martinitz Palace was. Although the palace was not executed in detail according to Fontana’s ideas, it is worth analysing because it could shed light on the forces that infuenced what aristocratic residences looked like in the Kingdom’s capital. In this article, I set out to analyse not only the building of Martinitz Palace as it was built, but especially the creative and social processes that led to its construction. In 1696, Prince Johann Adam Andreas of Liechtenstein contacted Fontana through Count Georg Adam II of Martinitz (Jiří Adam of Martinice / z Martinic), Imperial Ambassador to the Papal Court in Rome. 2 Te prince certainly knew the Martinitz family, as he had bought a garden from Maximilian Quidobald, brother of Georg Adam II, in 1697 to complete his subur- ban palace in Vienna-Rossau. 3 Te plans were delivered on 4 December of the same year, but they were never ex- ecuted. Tis was not surprising. In probably two design phases, Fontana imagined the palace as an almost per- fectly centralised structure. [1] Te second project, which represented a large square-like concept with four inner courtyards divided by perpendicular wings crossing under the central cupola, was symmetrical along both main axes. [2] Tis was an ingenuous idea, which may have inspired Vanvitelli’s majestic project for Reggia di Caserta. 4 Fontana, however, ignored the detailed instruc- tions Liechtenstein gave in a surviving leter to Count Martinitz. 5 Te instructions defned the dimensions of the building site, the distribution of the most important rooms, and some important technical details, especially the construction of the stoves, which were to be served from some other place than in the rooms they heated. It is not quite clear what site the plans were designed for. It is generally supposed, as mentioned above, that the plans were intended for Rudoltice near Landškroun/Landskron near the border between Bohemia and Moravia. It cannot be ruled out that the plans were in fact commissioned for another Liechtenstein estate or from the outset purely as an ideal plan. 6 Fontana probably wanted to design a model building — ‘l’edifcio regulato alla Romana, per accrescergli magnifcenza’. 7 In Rudoltice, Liechtenstein had a much less innovative palace built by Domenico Martinelli, the author of Liechtenstein Palace in Vienna-Rossau. Te building was heavily damaged by fre in 1714 and almost completely demolished in the second half of the 18 th century. 8 Te only surviving fragment, one of the corner ‘towers’, still bears witness to Martinelli’s principal inspiration in Fontana’s work. Fontana did not succeed with the second project he designed to be built in Bohemia either. Tis project was made either for Karel Ignaz of Sternberg or for his nephew Jan Josef. Both aristocrats were members of an old Bohemian family who owned a plot of land at Hradčany Ridge, overlooking the town and quite near to Prague Castle. 9 Unfortunately, Karel Ignaz died on 6 March 1700, and his nephew Jan Josef drowned in the Inn River when he was returning from Rome