The turn of the 18th and 19th century was a dramatic period of conflict between the rational and pragmatic classicism on the one hand, and the brittle romanticism on the other hand. The knowledge of this context and of the significance of the industrial revolution is combined with the study of architecture and building in the 19th century in Europe and in the Czech lands. The knowledge of the relations between social development, culture, technology and science, exemplified by architectural vocabulary, new structures and materials, as well as by the roots of inspiration and examples of architecture, is the aim of this subject.