The concept of an ideal town dates back to the philosophy and aesthetics of the Italian
period Quattrocento, and its sources can be particularly found in works by Alberti,
Francesco Zorzi, and Francesco di Giorgio Martini. Both Zamoyski and the second co-author,
Morando (who was at the same time the architectural constructor of the urban project),
were well acquainted with contemporary works of the above mentioned Italian theorists.
Zamoyski's rich library as well as his authority as an expert-theorist on architecture
(confirmed, for instance, by a request made by B. Lorini in 1597 for an opinion about his
work "Le fortificiatoni") prove the chancellor's and his architect's
acquaintance with architectural treatises.
Ideal towns, such as Sabblonetta
(1550), La Valetta (15594, Nowe Zamky (1562), Palmanuova (1593), or French Charleville
(1606), are characterized by a harmonious design of the functional and spatial aspects of
the project. Zamosc meets these requirements and, additionally, stands out as an excellent
combination of those theoretical Italian concepts with Polish tradition, lifestyle, and
the likes of the founder and his contemporaries. The very name of the town - Zamosc - has
been derived from the surname of its originator. Moreover, the town's architecture
contains certain typically Polish elements, such as domination of the monarch over the
town (manifested in the design), location of the temple and the university, and
multinational character of Zamosc, which contribute to the town's unique charm and
significance.
The project of Zamosc is a
result of a cooperation between the architect Bernardo Morando and Jan Zamoyski. The
design comes from 1578 and was meant as a plan of a capital city of Zamoyski's state. The
project consists of a fortified fortress, a monarch's residence, and the centres of
intellectual life (an academy and a printing-house), of judicial system (the seat of the
Highest Court), and of religious life (a collegiate church).
Religion played an important
role in the ideal town of the anticipated ideal state. According to Zamoyski's will, the
'state' religion was Roman-Catholic. Therefore, the collegiate church - a catholic temple
- was given the features of a cathedral. The temple's design is splendid, with its three
naves and a row of chapels on both sides.
The urban design of Zamosc has
an oblong shape. It consists of two well-integrated elements: the monarch's residence and
the town itself. The residence, so to say, crowns the whole composition. It dominates the
town and constitutes a point of meeting of all the longways and transit roads. The point
of departure for the authors of the graphic project was a form of a rectangle of a
proportion 2: 3 and the size of 10 times 15 ropes (1 rope equals to 10 perches, which
equal to 150 feet, while 1 foot corresponds to 30,3 cm).
This rectangle was divided into
a square, which constitutes the town proper (two thirds of the rectangle), and a part
intended as a site of the residence (the remaining one third). The town has been
integrally connected with the residence by a longways axis going right through the middle
of the design. Roughly in its half the longways axis is intersected by the transverse
axis. The point of intersection of the axes corresponds to the location of the great
marketsquare, whereas the two small marketsquares were set up on its both sides on the
transverse axis. The great marketsquare constitutes the centre of the design as a whole,
being slightly shifted towards the residence in relation to the town proper. The town is
inscribed into a square the size of 10 times 10 ropes. The grid pattern of the rope lines
has determined the route of the longways and transverse streets. Distances between the
longways and transverse streets are 1 and 2 ropes respectively. The street-grid has
determined the size of buildings located in the plots of land the size of 1 times 2 ropes,
1 times 1 rope, and 1 times 1,5 ropes, which applies to the plots situated near the
marketsquare. The collegiate church and the academy were located in the building plots the
size of 2 x 2 ropes, laid out symmetrically on the border between the residence and the
town proper, placed within the same distance from the palace and the great marketsquare.
The residence axis, also
designed on the rope-perch grid, has been surrounded by its own, "symbolic"
fortifications, which enclose the area the size of 4 x 2,5 rope. The whole project was
meant to be surrounded by massive fortifications, establishing Zamosc as a modern
fortress. However, the general shape of these fortifications, constituting an outline of
the town's project, was a posterior idea, as it was while planning the town when
peripheral plots started to be built up without any detailed plan of the town's defences.
The town's proportions are
simple and harmonious, expressed in ratios 1: 2, 2: 3, 1: 3. These were the favorite
classical architectural proportions of the Renaissance, expressed in forms of the simplest
chords: octave, fifth, and duodecimo.
In those ratios lies the
phenomenon of Zamosc. There is a close connection between the proportions of the town's
plan and those of the temple's projection. To compare them it is necessary to bring the
plans to a common dimension by 15-fold enlargement of the collegiate's plan. If we put the
appropriately enlarged collegiate's plan onto the town's plan, we will be able to see
amazing analogies between the designs and proportions of these two buildings.
First of all, the axes of the
church agree with those of the town. The body of the collegiate corresponds to the town
proper, and the chancel is an equivalent of the residence. The chapels placed in the
corners/on the border between the body and the chancel correspond to the collegiate and
academy's sites on the urban plan. The rhythm of the spans in the church's body closely
resembles the rhythm of the town's streets and marketsquares; for instance, the transverse
streets agree with the transverse axes of the church's spans. Also the lines of three
naves and two rows of the chapels find their equivalents in the street rows on the town's
plan. Each marketsquare corresponds to a particular nave of the church (the great market -
to the great nave, and the side markets to the aisles respectively). The three portals of
the collegiate (one main and two side portals) are equivalents of the three gates: the
main gate of Lwów, and two side gates of Lublin and of Szczebrzewo). The even number of
sides enclosing the chancel, which is 14, is equal to the number of axes of the front
elevation of the bishops residence.
The fact of existing so many
analogies between the plans of the church and the town is a highly purposeful undertaking,
whose aim is to manifest the organic link between these institutions. This dependence is
underlined by the common iconographic program, for instance a common patron saint of
Zamoyski's town and the collegiate, which is St. Thomas. The representation of the Holy
Virgin Queen of Heavens in the collegiate is analogical to the representation of the
Virgin Mary Queen of Poland at the town's main gate. The last parallel represents the
dependence between the town and the church, which symbolizes the two towns: the earthly
one (Civitas Terrena) and the heavenly one (Civitas Dei). The correspondence between the
plans of the collegiate and the town is an artistic prefiguration of the Salomon temple as
a "Civitas Dei" or a "Heavenly Jerusalem".
The ideology is present also in
urban location of the collegiate. The church is situated within an equal distance from the
palace and the centre of the great marketsquare. The transverse axis of the collegiate
links it to the academy, forming a second ideologically and artistically important axis,
which is parallel to the axis connecting the markets and transverse to the main line,
running to the palace. The line collegiate - academy marks the western border of the town,
separates it from the residence, and at the same time emphasizes the contributory
character of both institutions to the residence and town (present, slightly unsymmetrical
location of the collegiate in relation to the academy building is a result of certain
departures from the original project during the process of realization) .
The town's plan has also its
anthropomorphic origin, visible during the urban analysis of the town's map. The longways
axis going to the residence is the town's spine, whereas the residence itself stands for
the organism's head. The collegiate and academy play a role of human lungs, the great
marketsquare is a stomach, and the side markets are kidueys. Corner bastions play a role
of human limbs used for fighting. The concept of the man-town comes from the philosophy of
the Italian Renaissance, which recognized a human being as the perfect work of nature. It
can be illustrated by a drawing in a work by Francesco Martini "Traktato di
architettura civile e militare", which can be found in a Lausenziana codex from 1482.
The drawing represents a human figure as a model for an oblong town. The captions explain
particular functions of the elements: a citadel as the head, bastions in the places of
elbows and feet, a square in the place of the stomach, and the church in the middle of the
chest.
If a town is a reflection of a
human being, and a human being, according to the ancient and renaissance philosophy, was
considered to be a microcosm thanks to his harmony and a logical structure of his body,
then also a town reflects a harmonious structure of the microcosm "imago mundi
majoris" .
The urban project of Zamosc
constitutes also a reflection of the founder's views on the state. A harmonious and
organic structure of the town which unites in itself all the main institutions of various
aspects of political, social, and economic life was to be a reflection of the harmonious
structure of Zamoyski's state, ruled lawfully by a wise and learned prince. Thus, only a
perfect, wise monarch can rule the state; he is its head and the citizens are the state's
limbs subject to the mind's orders. Therefore the residence occupies the crown position in
relation to the town, just like the main altar does in relation to the collegiate as a
whole. Moreover, the role of the symbol of the founder's power is played by the palace's
tower crowned with an attic. The fact of not giving the prominence to the townhall and
placing on the side of the marketsquare is not surprising, as these were the ruler and his
residence that were most prominent in this town.
Zamosc - an ideal town, which
realizes the postulates of the ancient philosophy, was also given an ancient form: square
marketplaces with arcades which correspond to the ancient forum with its porticoes; the
academy named Hippeum (that is a knights school following an example of the Julian Academy
in Rome); the collegiate which corresponds in its form to the Doric victory temple
dedicated to Mark; the town's gates which are analogous to Roman triumphal arches. |
