The construction of Brno’s ring boulevard began with the demolition of the city fortifications near the Staré Brno Gate. According to plans from the 1850s, a new square with a fountain and two facing block developments was to be created at the mouth of Pekařská Street. One of these buildings was conceived as a municipal rental house intended to alleviate the acute housing shortage. The final layout of the square was prepared at the end of 1853 by employees of the municipal building office, Ferdinand Kraus and Wenzel Stolz, who had earlier submitted initial (unrealised) designs for a residential building. The Brno City Council subsequently commissioned the renowned Viennese architects Eduard van der Nüll and August Sicard von Sicardsburg to design the building. At the time, the two young architects were working together in Vienna on the Roberthof (completed in 1855), the first example of a new type of block apartment building organised around an internal courtyard (Wohnhof), a model that soon became widespread in the Viennese–Brno cultural sphere. Due to their heavy workload, van der Nüll and Sicardsburg were unable to take on the Brno commission and, on 17 December 1852, recommended their former student Franz Fröhlich to the mayor of Brno. Fröhlich took up the commission immediately and at the beginning of 1853 prepared the plans for the building known in contemporary sources as the “Municipal House at St Francis’s”. The extensive building was completed in 1855. A fountain with figural sculpture by the Viennese sculptor Vincenz Pilz was also planned for the square, but it was never realised. The Municipal Courtyard is a three-storey block building composed of four wings enclosing a rectangular inner courtyard. A high rusticated plinth zone incorporates the ground floor and mezzanine. All four façades are reinforced by corner risalits articulated with quoins and topped by attic storeys, giving the architecture a fortress-like character. Each of these corner risalits is further accentuated by an oriel window with a balcony on the second floor. The main façade, facing Šilingrovo Square, is dominated by a triple-arched entrance portal with a wide balcony above, supported by consoles. Similar balconies articulate the side façades. This rhythmic use of balconies became a characteristic motif of Brno architecture in the second half of the 19th century. The composition is crowned by a massive projecting cornice, as robust as the other architectural elements. The façades are decorated with romantic ornamental elements made of prefabricated terracotta or cast iron, probably produced by the Anton and Ignaz von Doblhoff building ceramics factory in Wagram. The relatively delicate decoration, featuring stylised floral motifs and stars inscribed in circles or squares, as well as bands of foliage, is concentrated mainly around the windows and in the friezes of horizontal cornices.
The original layout comprised a range of apartments of varying sizes. Internal circulation was provided by a staircase accessed from the main passage and by additional staircases entered from the courtyard into each wing. Residents reached their apartments via the arcaded courtyard, which had a distinctly Mediterranean character. Stylistically, the building belongs to Romantic Historicism. Symmetrical layouts and powerful building volumes are combined with decorative forms inspired by the early Middle Ages and early modern period, particularly Italian architecture. The Municipal Courtyard thus represents one of the earliest examples of monumental historicist architecture in Brno. As a municipal rental house, it also introduced into the city centre the Viennese–Brno type of the residential courtyard block (Wohnhof), later adopted by many other developments and effectively addressing the growing demand for housing caused by rapid population growth. Upon completion, the Municipal Courtyard became a well-known and highly regarded new building and a prestigious address in Brno. Contemporary commentary praised its poetic conception and noble appearance, often drawing parallels between Renaissance Italy and modern Brno. Its popularity was enhanced by its favourable location near the promenade and viewpoint park at St Francis’s. The building housed members of the municipal and provincial elite, and from 1860 it accommodated the Provincial Building Directorate. It was constructed by the builder Moriz Kellner von Brünnheim, who in 1857 added a three-storey semi-block rental house at Husova 3, framing the view towards the obelisk at St Francis’s and further emphasising the representative character of the area. In 1870, the Natural History Society founded by Johann Gregor Mendel moved into the Municipal Courtyard from the German secondary school in Jánská Street. The building also housed the district court, the Higher Provincial Court and the Civil Provincial Court. From the second half of the 1930s, part of the premises was used by the Brno City Museum, which relocated to Špilberk Castle in 1960. From the 1960s onwards, the gradually deteriorating building was occupied by various institutions, including a dental clinic, the police and the building authority. By the 1990s, the largely vacant structure was in a state of disrepair. After considering several reuse options, the City of Brno decided to sell the property. In 2009, the Municipal Courtyard was sold to the Spanish company Comsa, which converted it for hotel use; during the reconstruction, the inner courtyard was roofed over. In December 2011, Comsa entered negotiations on a pre-sale to the Spanish hotel chain Barceló, a process accompanied by legal disputes. Since 2012, Barceló has operated one of its hotels in the building.
Pavla Cenková
