The block of houses between Masarykova and Radnická Streets holds an exceptional position in central Brno right next to the building complex of the Old Town Hall. Before the area was cleared at the turn of the 20th century, it was home to around twenty buildings of various sizes, and the two streets were connected by a narrow winding alley called Ševcovská, which opened onto Radnická through a narrow passage. From a nostalgic point of view, it was a picturesque place, but the hygienic conditions and the state of the buildings did not meet modern standards. As a result, the entire block was demolished around 1905 to make way for redevelopment. This clearance allowed for a new urban layout. The city’s building director Hans Kellner ordered the realignment of Ševcovská Street (today Průchodní) so that it terminated directly across from the Old Town Hall.
The four buildings – one with a passageway from Masarykova Street, two on the corner of Radnická and Průchodní (an extension of this passageway), and one on the corner of Radnická and Zelný trh (Cabbage Market) – were constructed in 1909–1912 as an investment opportunity by the builders Adolf Bacher and Karel Pětník. They were designed by Maxim Johann Monter, who had studied architecture at Prague’s Technical University and had come to Brno in 1904 after apprenticing in Germany and Galicia. Bacher, who had studied at Brno’s German technical school, and Pětník, who worked in the technical department of the Moravian governor’s office, collaborated with Monter on several other projects as well.
The buildings’ design had to contend with a number of challenges. Two of the elevations face the main urban spaces of Masarykova Street and Zelný trh, while the others overlook the more intimate setting of Radnická and Průchodní Streets, where they have to ‘compete’ for attention with the tower of the Old Town Hall and its portal by Anton Pilgram. Taking this situation into account, Monter produced a design that respects the Late Gothic town hall portal as a central urban element and does not try to compete with it. The buildings have rounded corners and shallow avant-corps at the end of Průchodní Street. Other three-dimensional touches include the use of differently textured plaster and the use of decorative architectural elements. One entirely exceptional feature is the conscious reference to one of the demolished buildings in the form of the stucco relief on the corner overlooking the market square. In fact, this part of the facade has the most elaborate design, accentuated by the Art Nouveau floral decoration, the female busts and the use of architectural volumes of various heights.
The interiors are also extravagantly designed and must have made quite an impression in contrast to the nearby older buildings. The buildings’ winding staircases were built around a central lift shaft. Although there is no longer a lift at Radnická 7 / Průchodní 2, the original grate has been preserved. The original floor and wall tiles have been preserved in the common areas, as have the doors to the individual apartments and the wrought-iron handrails on the stairs.
When they were built, the buildings offered rental housing on the upper floors and commercial spaces on the ground floor, which is often tall enough to be used as two storeys. The building on Zelný trh was used by the Central Association of German Agricultural Cooperatives in Moravia and Silesia (Zentralverband der deutschen landwirtschaftlichen Genossenschaften Mährens und Schlesiens), which operated the Agrarian Bank on the premises. Radnická 9 was home to Zuisch & Heller, a shop selling hosiery and sporting goods, and the building on Masarykova (known as Ferdinandova until 1918) housed a savings bank. Today, these carefully maintained buildings continue to serve similar functions and are among the most outstanding examples of the architecture built as part of Brno’s clearance and redevelopment.
Matěj Kruntorád
