while vittone and juvarra were active in and around turin, the artistic ideals of baroque italy were being spread to the north and east through switzerland, austria,southern Germany,and bohemia. there Italian influences merged with local tastes and surviving craft-guild traditions to create a version of the baroque distinctive to central Europe. as in Italy, the driving force was the catholic counter-reformation,yet the style received support not only from Church officials, but also from princes and monarchs, who hoped to project a progressive image, and from the common people, for whom it reflected deeply held religious beliefs. in many respects baroque churches in central Europe continued medieval themes, and architecture, sculpture, and painting advanced a single idea: the evocation of a heavenly realm.