Holl, Elias

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Holl, Elias (1573–1646). Born in Augsburg, he became the leading Renaissance architect in Germany after a visit to Italy (1600–1). He was responsible for the city of Augsburg's official buildings from 1602, designing the Giesshaus (Foundry—1601), Zeughaus (Arsenal—1602–7), Siegelhaus (Municipal Seal office—1604–6— destroyed 1809), Metzge (Slaughterhouse—1609), and many other structures. His most important building was the Rathaus (Town Hall—1614–20), the central section of which has all the verticality of a gabled German house, but on either side the elevations are more Classical and serene. His Heilige Geist Spital (Hospital of the Holy Ghost—1626–30) is marked by clear cubic forms, a separation of individual elements, the subordination of decoration, and a two-storey arcade around a court. Among his works outside Augsburg, his designs for the Willibaldsburg, Eichstätt (1609–10), are the most architecturally significant.

Bibliography

Architectura, xv (1985), 1–12;
E. Hempel (1965);
Hieber (1923);
Hitchcock (1981);
Roeck (1985, 1985a);
Schürer (1938);
Jane Turner (1996);
R. Walter (1972)