Firemen's Mutual Insurance Company

The first insurance company focusing solely on Czech clients could not be set up in Brno until 1900 due to disfavour on the part of the German authorities. In 1907 the insurance company managed to purchase a house in today's Benešova Street, gaining a foothold in the largely German centre of Brno. After 1918 its offices spread into the two neighbouring buildings and the insurance company decided to adapt the entire block in the late 1920s. The company chose architect Bohumír Čermák to prepare the designs, which differ from the resulting reconstruction; therefore, we cannot be sure whether he is really the author of the work. The only preserved element of the originally historicist buildings was the peripheral walls; the interior received a complete reconstruction, including new staircases whose placement matched the two entrances from Benešova Street. The facade of the building lost its historicist decoration and, in the spirit of formal post-war neo-classicism, received a central risalit with verticals of semi-pillars between windows and a sign bearing the logo of the insurance company. However, the side wings are segmented by the horizontal lines of the cornices. A complete reconstruction of the building, including restoration of the facade and the extension of the top floor, took place recently.