Around 1900, Královo Pole was a rapidly developing independent municipality with lively construction activity. Its general prosperity was reflected in its ceremonial elevation to the status of a city in 1905. In 1885–1907, the so-called ‘new quarter’ was built in Královo Pole, encompassing the parallel streets today called Dobrovského, Jungmannova, Vackova and Svatopluka Čecha, bisected by the perpendicular Slovinská Street. The neighbourhood is characterized by an ensemble of similarly designed residential buildings done in a late historicist style. Their defining feature is the combination of fair-faced bricks with stucco décor, mostly Neo-Baroque in character. Slightly younger, similarly crafted brick-stucco facades that combine a Neo-Baroque or vernacular style with Art Nouveau details can be found on Jungmannova and Riegrova Streets. One local example of this distinctive type of late historicist architecture is Jakub Svoboda’s grand, intricately designed house on Palackého Avenue, dated ‘1904’ above the entrance.
The five-bay main elevation is accentuated by a massive centrally placed portal flanked by Atlases holding up a loggia-style terrace. Along with the opulent decorativeness of late historicist (mostly Neo-Baroque) architecture, the intent of this ‘noble form’ was to emphasize the owner’s importance. The facade combines the smooth surfaces of the fair-faced bricks with decorative plaster forms. The rich, almost exaggerated décor is characterized by a Neo-Baroque ornamental apparatus. The central avant-corps with the portal and loggia is crowned by a Baroque volute gable bearing the owner’s initials JS (Jakub Svoboda) in a circular recess.
The original formal elements have been preserved on the first-floor facade, while the commercial ground floor has been significantly altered and degraded by the ‘visual pollution’ of modern shop signs.
Pavla Cenková