Jan Santini Aichel


Jan Blažej Santini Aichel was a Czech architect of Italian descent. His major works are representative of the unique Baroque Gothic style.

Biography

Baptised as Johann Blasius Aichel, Jan Blažej Santini Aichel was born in Prague, Bohemia on 3 February 1677 to a Czech mother and Italian father as their oldest son. Both his grandfather Antonio Aichel and his father Santini Aichel belonged to respectable stonemasons. Jan Blažej was born small, hunchbacked and partially lame, preventing him from following in his father's footsteps.
Around 1696 he started to travel and gain experience. After his journey through Austria he arrived in Rome, where he had the possibility to meet with the work of Francesco Borromini. When Aichel was in Italy, he incorporated his father's given name, Santini, into his name.
Aichel founded his architectural practice in Prague in 1703, attaining the status of a burgher of Prague in 1705. He bought and rebuilt the Valkounský House in the same year.
Aichel studied painting under the court painter Christian Schröder. He married Schröder's daughter, Veronika Alžběta, in 1707. They had four children, but all three sons died from tuberculosis at an early age; the only child left was Anna Veronika. Aichel's wife died seven years later and he remarried a South Bohemian noblewoman, Antonia Ignatia Chrapická of Mohliškovice, whereby Aichel was ennobled. Daughter Jana Ludmila and son Jan Ignác Rochus were born from this marriage.
Aichel died at 46, having built over 100 buildings in his twenty-year career, but leaving some unfinished. Although he had become a well-regarded architect to Bohemia's greatest noble families and monastic orders, his original, eclectic style had few successors or imitators.

Honours

The asteroid 37699 Santini-Aichl is named in his honour.

Works