Charlotte Deutsch’s apartment building, designed by Maximilian Leopold Matzenauer and built in 1904, is located on a very narrow, medieval plot close to the Minorite monastery. The facade is adorned with rich stucco Art Nouveau decoration. Matzenauer was inspired by the Vienna Secession architecture of Otto Wagner and its geometric tendencies, but also by French Art Nouveau with its floral exuberance. From the second floor up, the distinctive brick details stand out from the plastered surfaces like quoins, an effect accentuated by the exposed steel lintels with gilded rivets above the windows. The highly stylized floral décor between the windows is vaguely reminiscent of grapes, perhaps in reference to the Deutsch family’s distillery on Pekařská Street – a line of business further reflected in gilded masks reminiscent of the god Bacchus and two wreaths with gilded details.
Various original details have been preserved in the building’s interior, including the original carved Art Nouveau doors, whose wooden lintels repeat the motif of the stuccowork on the cornice beneath the ceiling. The four-flight staircase is lined by its original Art Nouveau cast-iron railings, and two types of virtually undamaged tiles have been preserved in the hallways. Most of the apartments have retained their original hinged double doors. The staircase is illuminated by a skylight and by windows to the courtyard.
Martin Koplík
