Starting in the 1780s, Czech patriots viewed theatre as a tool for spreading national awareness, and the formation of a modern Czech theatre tradition reached its apex with the opening of the National Theatre in Prague in 1881 (and its re-opening two years later after it was damaged by a fire shortly after its initial inauguration). That same year, the Czech National Theatre Cooperative in Brno was founded with the same aim of building a separate theatre venue for city’s Czech audiences. Since the 1870s, Czech-language productions had been held in the main auditorium or atrium of the Besední dům, but after 1881 these were no longer allowed for safety reasons. In 1883, the Cooperative bought building no. 6 on today’s Žerotínovo náměstí, which had previously been home to the Orfeum restaurant and dance hall. It was subsequently adapted by the architect Eduard Svoboda, and the Provisional Czech National Theatre was officially inaugurated the following year, on 6 December 1884. The name indicates that the building was not quite ideal for use by a theatre, and indeed the premises were further adapted in the 1880s according to plans by the architect Bedřich Münzberger. Even these alterations did not solve the problem of the building’s cramped spaces, and so in 1909 the Cooperative purchased the neighbouring building at Veveří 3 and, a year later, the building to the left of the theatre, which was being used by Institute for the Blind. The first, conceptual, round of the competition for a new theatre building was announced in 1910. During the competition, the national question was reflected by attempts at limiting participation to Moravian architects and by the dismissal of two members of the jury – Vienna’s two most prominent architects, Otto Wagner and Friedrich Ohmann. The jury eventually included Jan Koula, Kamil Hilbert, Václav Roštlapil and Vladimír Fischer, among others. Forty-two projects were submitted by architects such as Josef Gočár, Pavel Janák, Josef Chochol and Otakar Novotný. First prize went a design by Josef Mařík and Karel Šidlík, followed by Alois Dryák in second place and Theodor Macharáček in third. Besides the winning projects, the Cooperative also purchased designs by Antonín Blažek, Emil Králík, Bohumil Hübschmann and František Roith.
The character of the competition’s second round was defined by discussions regarding the theatre’s exact location. Instead of the previously announced location on the corner of Veveří Street, it was decided that the building should be placed at the centre of the square. Besides the prize winners, all the other architects from the first round were invited to submit proposals as well. In the end, however, the jury stated that none of the twenty submissions met their expectations, and so none was recommended for implementation.
Subsequent political developments and the outbreak of the First World War halted all efforts at building a Czech National Theatre on Veveří Street. Subsequent competitions were not announced until the 1930s, but it wasn’t until the early 1960s that Brno finally inaugurated a new theatre venue – the Janáček Theatre.
The initial 1910 competition for a new Czech National Theatre in Brno perfectly reflects the wide range of architectural styles found in the early 20th century, from classicist tendencies and eclecticism all the way to geometric modernism and Cubism. According to leading architecture theorist Oldřich Starý, the competition was an important milestone in the history of Czech architecture.
Lucie Valdhansová