Giovanni Pietro Tencalla

17 November 1629, Bissone, Switzerland – 6 March 1702, Bissone, Switzerland

Giovanni Pietro Tencalla came from a large family of Swiss architects, painters and stucco artists. In 1656 (or 1658) he came to Vienna and became an assistant (“socius”) to the imperial architect Filibert Lucchese. After the death of his teacher in 1666, he took his place and served the emperor until the end of the 17^th century. Like Lucchese, he worked in the tradition of the architectural principles called planimetrism, in which façades are made according to a rhythmic segmentation of surfaces, rather than emphasising load bearing elements. Tencalla’s projects in the Vienna area included, for example, the reconstruction of the Leopold wing, destroyed by fire, in Hofburg (1668–1670), the renovation of Villa Favorita, modifications to chateau Kaiser–Ebensdorf and the project of the Lobkowicz Palace (1685–1687).

However, Tencalla mostly worked in Moravia, where he and Lucchese began working for the Bishop of Olomouc Karl II von Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn in 1664. He continued Lucchese’s work on the bishop’s palace in Olomouc, chateau in Vyškov and most of all the renovation of the summer residence in Kroměříž, where apart from the chateau he also designed the famous Flower Garden in 1666–1698. He also built many smaller buildings in the town, e.g. canon houses, the Liechtenstein seminary and granary. In his work in Kroměříž, Tencalla emphasised horizontal segmentation of façades using long pilasters, which alternate with rows of windows along the entire length of the façade, thus creating a monumental appearance. He also used the method in his extensive renovation of the Hradisko monastery near Olomouc.

Tencalla’s work on sacred architecture in Moravia was also extensive and diverse; he used a wide range of approaches and solutions. In churches in Brno-Zábrdovice and Lomnice, completed in the late 1660s, he used the motif of the deep graded façade. The Dominican church of Saint Michael in Olomouc (1676–1699) sticks out in the city panorama due to its three domes, while the Church of Saint Anne and Jacob the Great in Stará Voda (1681) is notable for its octagonal shape. Tencalla also designed some of the most popular pilgrimage sites in Moravia – the Basilica of the Assumption of Virgin Mary on the Holy Hill and the complex of the Velehrad monastery – although in case of the latter his contribution is still debatable. His only well-known project in Bohemia is the Lobkowicz chateau in Bílina (1675).