The Chamber of Commerce and Trade for Brno and part of Moravia was founded in 1850. Two circumstances contributed to its acquisition of a grand headquarters in the city centre. First, the chamber obtained a suitable site after the demolition of the Jesuit College; and second, the chamber received a gift of 100,000 crowns from its president, Julius von Gomperz, which covered around one fifth of the construction costs. An architecture competition announced in 1907 was won by the little-known Viennese architect Edmund Schutt, who subsequently elaborated his plans further. Designs by the Viennese architect and builder Siegfried Kramer and by the Brno architect Franz Holik took second and third places. Another participant was the Viennese architect Heinrich Karl Ried, who later designed the Jubilee House of Artists (today’s House of Arts Brno, B037). Construction was carried out by the Brno builder Anton Jelinek, and the ceremonial laying of the capstone took place on 2 May 1909. Schutt partially drew inspiration from a building with the same purpose on Vienna’s Stubenring, built in 1905–1907 according to plans by Ludwig Baumann.
The monumental corner palace has a well-lit semi-underground floor, a slightly raised ground floor, three main floors and two attic floors. Its architectural style is Neo-Baroque with Art Nouveau details. Although the interiors were mainly used for offices and exhibition rooms, it included apartments as well. The main conference hall with a gallery spans the second and third floors and is accentuated on the building’s exterior by an avant-corps and large stained-glass windows flanked by pairs of half columns; inside, it is decorated with wood panelling and stuccowork on the ceiling, the walls and the gallery’s balustrade. The conference hall faces Dvořákova Street, and the avant-corps on this side of the building is topped by a steep hip roof. Adjoining the conference hall were meeting rooms – a small one and a large one in the corner. The corner is accentuated by a polygonal oriel with a conical turret. Another avant-corps framing the entrance on Mozartova Street culminates in a shell-shaped Art Nouveau window and a mansard roof. Inside is an opulent main staircase with stone cladding and bronze railings, Art Nouveau light fixtures and stained-glass windows (produced by Benedikt Škarda). In terms of symbolism, the motif of a pair of heads of the Roman gods of commerce and blacksmiths, Mercury and Hephaestus, is repeated three times – on the main facade, in the entrance hall and in the conference hall.
Soon after it was completed, another building designed by Edmund Schutt was erected directly behind it on the same block at Beethovenova 2. The Chamber of Commerce and Trade was closed down in 1949, and the buildings were later acquired by the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts (founded in 1947). The building on Mozartova houses its Theatre Faculty, while the Beethovenova building is home to its rectorate.
Aleš Filip