The Karolinum is a historic building in the centre of Prague, the seat of Charles University and a National Cultural Monument.
The Karolinum is a building in the centre of Prague, the seat of Charles University. It is a National Cultural Monument and, according to Charles University, a symbol of the institution.[1]
History
From the 14th century the Karolinum housed the Karlova, or Great College (Latin Collegium Caroli), founded by Charles IV for twelve masters of the Prague university.[1]
The building became the property of the Prague university in 1383, when it was acquired for the college by King Wenceslaus IV, the son of the university's founder. It was one of the most splendid palaces of the Old Town, built not long before by the wealthy patrician, royal mint master and banker Johlin Rotlev, also called Rotlöw.[1]
After alterations, from 1386 the Karolinum served not only as a place of teaching and lodging for Prague professors, but also became the ceremonial assembly hall of the university and the residence of the rector, academic officials and university offices.[1]
Renaissance alterations did not change the appearance of the building significantly. It received a new face only through the Baroque reconstruction carried out in 1715 to 1718 by the architect František Maxmilián Kaňka. His work includes above all the stylistic reconstruction of the college and the characteristic Baroque portal in Železná Street.[1]
The most extensive transformation of the building came in the 20th century, when the architect Jaroslav Fragner carried out an extensive reconstruction of the whole complex in 1945 to 1959. The result was, among other things, a courtyard of honour with a ceremonial entrance, dominated by a fountain with three lions by the sculptor Stanislav Hanzík from 1968. During the reconstruction Fragner reverently preserved the medieval parts of the building, including details that had previously been covered by Kaňka's reconstruction, and, according to the university's description, created a monumental architectural whole.[1]
The last reconstruction took place in 1996 to 1997 under the architect Tomáš Šantavý, who continued Fragner's concept. During this reconstruction a new lecture hall, the so-called Imperial Hall, was built on the ground floor and meeting rooms in the basement, two lifts were installed, and the technical facilities of the building were rebuilt, including modernisation of the sound system of the Great Hall.[1]
Appearance and furnishings
The basis of the building's ground plan consists of the Romanesque-Gothic spaces of the original palace, that is, the sunken ground floor of houses from the 13th century, above which Rotlev's Palace was built in the 1360s. These underground spaces now serve as a permanent exhibition on the history of the university.[1]
The Gothic reconstruction of the late 14th century gave the building an appearance reminiscent of monastic spaces, for example a cloister with a garden court, and adapted the building to the needs of the university. The medieval rooms of the college served not only for teaching but also as living quarters and the administrative seat of the university. The ground floor contained the rooms of the rector, the university notary and the university treasury, or fiscus, as well as a prison for members of the academic community called the carcer. The other rooms were intended mainly for teaching.[1]
The central space of the building is the Great Hall on the first floor, a hall that serves as the ceremonial assembly place of the academic community and in which matriculations and graduation ceremonies of students and graduates are held. The hall received its present appearance from the architect Fragner. At its head is a tapestry made in 1948 by the workshop of Marie Teinitzerová to a design by Vladimír Sychra.[1]
The newly built Imperial Hall on the ground floor was named after three paintings placed at its head, which depict Empress Maria Theresa and her sons Joseph II and Leopold II. The paintings were made in 1799 by the painter Barbara Kafftová-Steinerová, who also painted the three portraits of professors of the Prague medical faculty on the side wall of the hall. In the adjoining cloister stands a marble crucifix by the sculptor Emanuel Max from 1870.[1]
Status
According to Charles University, the Karolinum is a National Cultural Monument and has belonged to the Prague university since 1383, when it was acquired for the college by King Wenceslaus IV.[1]