Ji?ín : Czech Republic
The biggest expansion of the town started in 1621, when the town became a property of army commander Albrecht von Wallenstein (Albrecht z Valdtejna), who made it the center of his Frdlant duchy and even minted his own coins there. Several architects worked for him, notably G. Marini, A. Spezza, G. Pieroni and since 1630 N. Sebregondi. He had the palace (locally known as Zmek, i.e. chteau) and the Church of St. James rebuilt completely in the North-Italian style and connected them via a roofed footbridge. The church, intened as a seat of a never established bishopric, has never been completed, so it lacks a spire and a cupola. The town was to be rebuilt completely into a modern town with separated representative and craftsman parts. The letter was placed into the New Town started in 1624 to the north of the central square with the Church of St. Mary de Sale and a new cemetery.
Much of these plans remained unfilled due to the early death of Albrecht von Wallenstein in 1634, after which the town lost much of its importance. The parish Church of St. Ignatius together with the college was given to the Jesuits in 1627 who started to In 1630, the construction of a villa with a loggia (Libosad) was started to the north-east of the center. There was a Baroque garden in front of it and a park around. It is connected with the town by a 1,7-km-long alley of lindens. Near Libosad, in the today’s village of Valdice, a Carthusian monastery with the Church of Assumption was founded in 1627. It served as the tomb of the house of Wallenstein until 1785, the monastery is used as a prison today.
It 1710 the town became a property of the House of Trauttmansdorff, which meant the arrival of the period of High Baroque, during which many constructions were completed. A lot of statues and sculptures to be found in the town today come from this period. In 1784 Ji?n became the seat of a new region. During the first half of the 19th century the town was spreading quickly, mainly eastward. Later, in the second half of the 19th century, many Neo-Renaissance houses were built. After World War II, during communist rule, many prefab apartment complexes sprung up around the town.
