The year 2023 marks the 300th anniversary of the death of architect Jan Blazej Santini-Aichel. On this occasion, the Czech Mint created a half-ounce gold medal which is part of a free cycle of the most beautiful unrealised designs that entered into the Czech National Bank's competitions.

Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel was born in 1677 to a Czech mother and an Italian father. He was baptised in the Church of St Vitus and grew up in the Old Town. He came into the world physically handicapped and so was unable to continue his father's demanding profession of masonry, but because he was acutely intelligent and had an excellent spatial imagination, he became an architect. He learned theory and practice in Prague and then went to Austria and Italy for experience. When he returned to his homeland, he translated his thoughts and feelings into a distinctive style that has gone down in history as Baroque Gothic. This unique Czech style was built on contrast - it used the dynamic means of the Baroque and at the same time managed to understand and preserve the legacy of the Gothic. In less than a quarter of a century, Santini designed almost a hundred buildings in Bohemia and Moravia. He gave a unique character not only to many large and important complexes - monasteries and castles - but also to small chapels, churches and inns. His work combined knowledge of mathematics and geometry with a passion for Jewish Kabbalah and Christian mysticism. While in the interiors he created spaces with excellent acoustics and extraordinary light characteristics, in the exteriors he demonstrated a refined sense of integrating buildings into the landscape. In the end of his life he worked simultaneously on eight large buildings throughout the territory of the present-day Czech Republic. He supervised everything, travelled hundreds of kilometres and worked all the time - even when travelling in a carriage. He died in 1723. He lived to be only 46 years old, but his legacy will be here forever…

The design by the academic sculptor Zbyněk Fojtů was used as a template for the commemorative medal. The expert committee of the Czech National Bank awarded him second place in the art competition for "a very good representation of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Sedlec and the Church of St. John of Nepomuk on Zelená hora in combination with construction details". While the obverse side is dominated by Santini's sacral buildings, the reverse side of the medal belongs to the Karlova Koruna château in Chlumec nad Cidlinou.

The mintage is only 99 pieces. Each medal is also hand numbered on the edge.