EN
The case study deals with the professional and social rise of the Czech architect Alois Turek among the new elite of the 19th century. With the help of the prosopographic method of collective biography of elites, the architect’s changing social and professional profile is monitored in connection with increasing his economic and symbolic (social and cultural) capital and improving his position in the social field. Within his career, his social background, course of education, construction practice and public work are described. The next part of the text deals with Turek’s patronage legacy in the context of the development of the foundation movement in the conditions of the emerging national-civil society of the 19th century.