When the Vesna patriotic women’s choral society was founded in 1870, it soon became clear that its mission would be not just singing, but more generally the education of Czech-speaking women. Especially thanks to the efforts of its executive director and pioneering figure of women’s education Eliška Machová, a girls’ continuation school was established in 1886. In 1889 the school constructed a new building on Údolní Street, ten years later the far end of the parcel on today’s Jaselská Street (no. 7) was set aside for the construction of a dormitory and secondary technical school, and in 1900 a girls’ lyceum was built on the neighbouring parcel at Jaselská 9.
The lyceum was built in a style not typically found in Brno. The plans were drafted by Kotěra’s young student Antonín Pfeiffer in a style considered modern at the time. The flat facade with large symmetrically arranged windows is adorned with relatively linear Art Nouveau décor reflecting the school’s patriotic Czech revivalist program. The main motif, a relief of a winged genius (a female Torchbearer) by the Prague sculptor Josef V. Pekárek, is a reference to the Vesna association’s mission of education and enlightenment. The facade’s more subtle stucco elements by the sculptor Karel Novák include girls’ heads, floral motifs, roosters and peacocks, plus an imperial eagle at the centre of the attic and monograms of the letter V on either side. The painted friezes in the classrooms are the work of Jano Köhler.
On 1 September 1901, the first school year began at the new building of the Girls’ Lyceum of the Vesna Association for Women’s Education, the first institution of its kind in Austria-Hungary. One driving force behind the school was Vesna’s long-time director František Mareš, a central figures of Czech-speaking Brno society. In 1900, Mareš founded the patriotic Club of the Friends of Art, which acquired an exhibition hall in the new lyceum building where it hosted Brno’s first group exhibition of Czech artists. The lyceum building also temporarily housed Brno’s Czech Technical University, which was founded in the same year. Today, both buildings are used by a secondary nursing school.
Matěj Kruntorád