At the entrance to today’s Masarykova street (formerly Sedlářská and from the 19th century Ferdinandova) stood the Židovská city gate, later known as Ferdinand’s Gate, where there was an inn for centuries. The lively trade in goods and information here also gave rise to the inn named U Tří kohoutů [The Three Cockrels]. Although the establishment bearing that name was not founded until 1795 by Franz Schmidt, it was undoubtedly in keeping with the tradition of this location. In the 1870s and 1880s, the building was owned by the innkeeper and hotelier Franz Olberth, and, in 1890, by Rudolf Stodůlka and his wife. At that time, it was a three-storey building with a Baroque facade segmented by pilasters. In the courtyard, there was a stable for thirty horses, an outhouse for carriages and a paved square. The two-wings of the building bordered a small area with a fountain, which was later replaced with a cast-iron pump. This originally provided water for the horses of the accommodated guests and the running of the inn, and it was also used by other residents of the area. The sign of the building of three cockrels was on the corner at the level of the first floor, and, above it, under a baldachin, stood a statue of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus (as Immaculata, Queen of Heaven, on a crescent moon). The U Tří kohoutů building was one of the first ‘victims’ of the Brno clearance and redevelopment. After its demolition in 1897, a new residential, commercial and inn building was built, based on a design by Jakob Gartner. The architect, Jakob Gartner, a native of Přerov from a Jewish family, studied in Brno and Vienna, where he later founded a successful studio specializing in the construction of synagogues. He also had a branch in Olomouc, where he designed a number of public and private buildings in historicizing style that referred primarily to Gothic and Renaissance architecture. The building in Brno was limited by the height of the neighbouring Hotel Padowetz from 1839 and the crooked shape of the plot. His design for the Stodůlkas was a Baroque Revival building, which made full use of the interesting corner. It was accentuated by shallow bay windows and balconies with richly decorated railings and culminated in a parapet with a pedestal for a metal sculpture of three cockrels (whose author is the little-known Brno sculptor Josef Rösser). On the corner, Gartner placed a late Baroque oak statue of the Virgin Mary as a reminder of the old building (a copy of which stands in its place today).When it was completed, a new Café Royal opened in the building, which operated until 1948, when Svatopluk Zbořil took it over as national administrator (previously it was run by Maxmilian Kohn, and then during the Protectorate by Karel Strnad, who was expelled from the country at the end of the war). In addition, Robert Procházka ran a Přerov brewery pub with a range of renowned Moravian smoked meats, followed by Karel Patík, who lent the spacious hall free of charge to various associations. The spacious ground floor with mezzanine also allowed the building to be used for other commercial purposes: Josef Chládek (and later his son Rudolf) operated a luggage and travel accessories store, Ignác Bloch had a men’s fashion shop, and Vilibald Stránský also ran an off-the-peg clothes store. The apartments on the upper floors were occupied by the Stodůlka family, but also by the upper social classes of Brno, mainly doctors. Before their deportation to concentration camps, Jewish families also lived there, such as that of the architect Leopold Petr Schlesinger. Rosálie Stodůlková owned the house until 1923, when Marie Chládková took it over. The ground-floor premises were used for hospitality even after 1948, when a famous Černá Hora brewery pub operated there. In its own way, the current tenant, a well-known purveyor of fast food, is continuing the tradition. The architecture of the building has been somewhat marred by the Purist decoration of the lower two floors, which were clad in polished travertine during the last reconstruction in 2004.
Matěj Kruntorád
