Selected parts of the Jesuit College complex (north wing, officers’ house, area with a lime kiln)

The Jesuit College was initially the residence of a male order, later serving as barracks for the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian army, then for the Czechoslovak army, and finally for the Czechoslovak People’s Army. Today, after three centuries, women and children can also enter this space. A gallery of the Central Bohemian region, showcasing modern artworks, has been placed within the complex. Thanks to this connection, people can experience the historical spaces in a unity of contrasts, combining the modern and the historical, the current and the slowly disappearing layers.

Through this work, we have not only touched the work of the significant architect of his time, Giovanni Domenico Orsi, but also confronted our own ignorance. We often asked ourselves, “What do we actually know about the Jesuits?” In schools, we were taught that Koniáš burned books. However, the order is also linked to the actions of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, the life of Czech missionary and botanist Jiří Kamel (discoverer of flowers of the Camellia genus, or Camellia), missionaries such as Šimon Boruhradský, Karel Slavíček, Josef Neumann, Jiří Hostinský, Václav Kirwitzer, František Antonín Boryně of Lhota, Samuel Fritz, Jan Kraus, Ignác Tirsche, the works of scientists and inventors Lorenzo Gusmao, Athanasius Kircher, Francesco Lana-Terzi, Valentino Stanzel, Jakub Kresa, and works by artists connected to Kutná Hora such as Bedřich Bridel, Jan Kořínka, and František Baugut (mentor to Matyáš Braun). Jesuits were also national revivalists, such as Bohuslav Balbín and Josef Dobrovský. Above all, the Jesuits were stewards, founders of pharmacies, and pioneers in education. Teachers who raised the Enlighteners who, in turn, destroyed their teachers…