On 5 June 1910, along with the consecration of the newly-built Church of the Sacred Heart, a local parish was established in Husovice. After initially operating on a provisional basis, it was made permanent on 1 January 1911. Administration of the parish was entrusted to the relatively new Salvatorian Order – or the Society of the Divine Saviour (Societas Divini Salvatoris), as they are officially known. In Moravia in the first half of the 20th century, the Salvatorian monks were also active in Valašské Meziříčí, Prostějov, Krnov and Vranov. The first, quite lavish design for the parish building was created as early as 1902 in connection with architect Karel Hugo Kepka’s initial plans for the church. It, too, was never realized, apparently also due to the expected cost. After the church had been consecrated, a temporary rectory operated in a corner house with a turret at náměstí Republiky 12. Later, apparently not until 1912, the Salvatorians purchased a newly built house at Vranovská 103, which was later adapted to serve as a rectory with a convent. The inscription on the facade dates the building to 1909−1910, but this probably refers to the date of the residential building’s construction, not its adaptation for church purposes, which included changes to the main facade. The author of this modification is not directly documented in the sources, but based on the building’s formal vocabulary it is likely that it was Karel Hugo Kepka. We may also consider the co-authorship of Karel Láník, who was Kepka’s assistant at the Department of Civil Engineering and who also collaborated with him on the Husovice parish church. Speaking in favour of this hypothesis is the fact that plans for the entrance door and for the stuccowork on the portal were preserved in Láník’s posthumous estate.
The two-storey building with a rectangular ground plan has a symmetrical nine-bay facade and a centrally placed rectangular entrance whose portal is topped by an arched pediment decorated with laurel festoons. The building’s two halves on either side of the portal are crowned by Baroque gables with stucco decoration – on the left gable is an allegorical figural relief with three putti and the date of construction; on the right gable is a motif of the All-Seeing Eye. The building’s socle is a combination of rough stone and brick. The windows on the ground floor are decorated with chambranles and pediments like the one above the portal. The first-floor apron walls are decorated with recessed concentric squares. The vertical dimension of the entire composition is accentuated by pilasters between the windows rendered in rough plaster.
Various valuable interior elements have been preserved, including the refined stuccowork on the ceiling of the salon on the ground floor, the staircase with decorative metal railing and the original doors with Art Nouveau geometric décor. This architecturally important building, characterized by Karel Hugo Kepka’s stylistic combination of historicism, Art Nouveau and modernism, recently underwent a heritage-sensitive renovation and is well preserved both inside and out. It is currently used as a friary by the Franciscan monks who administer the Husovice parish.
Pavla Cenková
