РОНДО-КРИШТАЛЕВИЙ, або ДО ПИТАННЯ ПРО ТВОРЕННЯ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОГО СТИЛЮ

The article proposes a somewhat new generalized vision of the Czech architectural tradition as a whole, over more than a thousand years of its development, with an attempt to formulate the features of a long-term national style. Such a vision, from the author's point of view, is possible only from the position of an "external observer", sufficiently qualified in the architectural field and not too immersed in the details of well-studied and researched individual stylistic periods of Bohemia-Czechia. The characteristic features of national architecture are observed in the manifestations of the antinomic struggle of northern "vertical" and southern "horizontal" influences against the background of pan-European and purely Czech events, their cultural direction and, accordingly, stylistic features. Thus, the content of the long or stable Czech style is defined as "rondo-crystal", as one that fluctuates between these two poles depending on the characteristic features of the era – religious, dynastic, national-liberation, artistic, political, etc. In the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the problem of national self-identification in all areas of culture, including architecture, is particularly acute, so an example of a developed, "well-tempered" and researched national architectural style of a related country seems quite useful. In the history of modern European architecture, the so-called Czech "rondo-cubism", which existed within the 1910-1930s, stands out clearly. This architectural style is the pinnacle and a kind of personification of the Czech national spirit, a manifestation of the final result of the national liberation struggle and conscious national construction. But even in the studies of Czech historians of architecture, it is studied as a separate stylistic phenomenon. Therefore, it is important to trace the prolegomena, prerequisites, influences and conditions of its creation, development and extinction, as well as the possibilities of further existence.The study of various stages of the development of Czech architecture and its individual monuments includes numerous publications by Czech authors. The architecture of the interwar period and rondo-cubism as such, largely silenced during the socialist camp in the 1940s-1980s, has been rehabilitated in recent decades — the works of Vladimir Šlapeta, Rostislav Švácha, etc. Characteristic are the studies of Ukrainian researchers — O. I. Remizova (Kharkiv), S. M. Linda (Lviv), etc. — who also, together with the research community, consider this outstanding phenomenon of Czech architecture separately in time.What is fundamentally new is a generalized and somewhat detached, “external” consideration of centuries-old Czech architecture from the perspective of its steady movement towards the creation of a unique national architectural style during the period of the highest point of national creation – an artistic model that seems especially relevant during the period of affirmation of new national identifications when the final destruction of Muscovite imperialism takes place.The research is developed in the form of travel notes of a scholar traveler who, for three days, examines the outstanding architectural monuments of Prague. Inductive generalization allows us to highlight the basic features of architectural creation. Semiotic and axiological methods contributed to a comprehensive vision of individual cases of Czech history in terms of its reflection in architecture. The culturological method served as a unifying basis for considering stylistic collisions over long historical periods. Methods of analysis and synthesis were useful in formulating generalizing conclusions of the study.