German architect, part of a Bavarian family of architects active in Germany and Bohemia. He was a leading builder in the Bohemian Baroque style. He brought to Bohemia a radical style with dynamic concept of material and expanding space after 1685. He worked for nobility and church all over Bohemia and acted as a fortress builder in Prague and Cheb. Some of his works are difficult to identify, due to the lack of documentation. He was the father of Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer. The two worked together on the Church of St. Nicholas (1703-11, 1732-52) and the Bøevnov Monastery (1708-21), both in Prague. //