In the early 20th century, the house owned by Anastazia Leniczek at Kobližná 8 was purchased by the married couple of Leopold and Maria Hager. After obtaining a demolition permit, the Hagers commissioned an apartment building for the vacant plot, which was built and most likely also designed by the Brno developer Robert Krug in 1914: a set of preserved plans, dated April 1914, are signed by Robert Krug as having realized the building. Upon completion, Leopold Hager opened a restaurant on the ground floor.
The building is an example of conventional late Art Nouveau architecture, which consciously looked back on historicist tradition but adapted it to the current situation. Krug built both it and the adjacent house at Kobližná 6. Whereas that building is in all respects an example of progressive modernist architecture, Kobližná 8 reflects the era’s much more traditional Neo-Classical position.
The five-storey apartment building has an asymmetrical triple-bay facade classically divided into three horizontal zones by cordon ledges and topped by a prominent crown cornice with a tooth-like relief pattern. A rounded oriel on the far right spans the first, second and third floors and thus accentuates the verticality of the facade, as does the pentagonal gable rising above the cornice in line with the oriel. On the left two-thirds of the building, the facade is covered with roughly textured plaster and the first- and second-floor windows are framed by continuous pilasters topped by triangular pediments with shell ornamentation. The modest yet finely detailed Art Nouveau décor is primarily concentrated on the apron walls, which are adorned with Krug’s favourite motif of large flower baskets – a nostalgic Neo-Classical element that also appears on other Brno buildings from the period around 1910.
The ground floor has been degraded by more recent modifications. Inside, the building has a double-pile arrangement, and an addition has been built in the courtyard. The stuccowork in the entrance hall has been preserved; the wrought-iron stair railing is original as well.
Pavla Cenková
