M.B.Braun and his work in north-east Bohemia

Matyas Bernard Braun was an Austrian sculptor and woodcarver acting mainly in the Czech Republic. He belongs to the most important representative of the Bohemian High Baroque sculpture.

He studied the sculpture art in Salzburg. After his studies he traveled to Italy, where visited Venice, Bologna and Rome. His work was inspired with the Venetian Sculpture School and with works by Gian Lorenzo Berniniho or Michelangelo Buonarrotiho.

Before 1710 he established his own workshop in Prague. He brought fame due to his sculpture masterpiece of St. Luitgard on the Charles Bridge in Prague from the year 1710.

His eminent maecenas was the Count Frantisek Antonin Spork, for which he created the famous allegories of Virtues and Vices in the Hospital Kuks.
In the present building of the Hospital, the visitors will find the originals of the allegories, a Baroque apothecary´s, the Czech Pharmaceutical Museum, a crypt of the Hospital´s founder František Antonin Spork, and many other things. In the near vicinity is situated Braun´s Nativity - a natural park with a gallery of Baroque sculptures, depicting Biblical scenes, in Nový les near Žireč.

Other Braun works we can find in Chateau Nove Město nad Metuji in the form of picturesque Baroque figures of dwarfs in the park in front of the chateau and in a French and an Italian chateau garden. This renaissance chateau is worthy of visit also due to historical chateau interiors in the style of Art Nouveau and Decorativism with valuable equipment and art collections, Renaissance wall paintings and Baroque stuccoes. The chateau tower invites for an ascent and offers beautiful view of the chateau garden, a court and a square.