Kraus, Johann - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VII, p. 465

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

KRAUS, JOHANN. - Bohemian Jesuit, missionary and architect in America, born at Pilsen on 19 June 1664, died at Buenos Aires in 1714. Admitted in 1689 into the Society of Jesus as a coadjutor brother, he went in 1698 to the Province of Paraguay.

There he practised his art in the reductions of Yapeyú, S. Tomé, S. Miguel, and especially S. Juan, where he assisted Fr. A. Sepp in founding the village and built a large church. More important were his works outside the reductions, at Córdoba in Tucumán (the novitiate house and the college called Monserrat, later continued by others according to his designs) and at Buenos Aires. When he had to rebuild (except for the façade) the great church of S. Ignazio in Buenos Aires, he closely followed the plan of the Gesù in Rome. Argentine art historians regard him as one of the most eminent masters of colonial architecture in their country.

BIBL.: A. Huonder, Deutsche Jesuitenmissionäre des 17. u. 18. Jahrhunderts, Friburgo in Br. 1899, p. 145; G. Furlong and C. Leonhardt, Tres pioneers de la civilización nacional: J. K., J. Klausner e E. Peschke, in Estudios, Buenos Aires, 20 (1921), pp. 34-36; E. Wernicke, Una carta del p. Sepp, con motivo de la muerte del hermano J. K., in Anuario de historia argentina, ibid. 1940, pp. 360-64; V. Sierra, Los Jesuitas germanos en la conquista espiritual de Hispano-America, ibid. 1940, pp. 260-63, 396; G.

Furlong, Arquitectos argentinos durante la dominación hispánica, ibid. 1946, pp. 126-38; J. L. Pagano, El templo de S. Ignacio (Documentos de arte argentino, 22), ibid. 1947. Edmondo Lamalle