Martin Šanda, Michael Rykl – Zvířetice known and unknown

For almost a decade, the stage-by-stage architectural-historical survey of the extensive ruins of the castle and manor house in Zvířetice (Mladá Boleslav district) has gradually yielded its fruits, and from the small fragments that the survey provided at the beginning, a more complex picture is beginning to emerge. In many ways, this new understanding is not only different from older interpretations but also far more intricate. What do we know today about this well-known structure, and what do we not know? And what can we say about its currently most researched part, which is its western wing? The topic will be presented by architectural historian Mgr. Martin Šanda, with supplementary findings obtained from partial research conducted with students of the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague, presented by doc. Ing. Michael Rykl, Ph.D.

Mgr. Martin Šanda is an art historian who, in addition to documenting buildings and conducting architectural-historical surveys across various construction epochs and typologies, also specializes in Central European Baroque architecture. Besides the surveys and documentation themselves, he is also involved in publishing and giving lectures, both at a professional and a popular science level. His main book work is a monograph dedicated to the Vienna architect Anton Erhard Martinelli.

Doc. Ing. Michael Rykl, Ph.D. has been a long-term scientific and educational worker at the Institute of Heritage Care and the Institute of Theory and History of Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague. His specialization includes residential typologies of the Middle Ages and early modern period, historical constructions, and architectural-historical surveys in relation to issues of heritage care. In addition to his teaching activities and building surveys, he has also contributed to numerous professional publications.