Workers' House (Dělnický dům)

The popular premises of the Workers' House (Dělnický dům), widely used for various social and cultural events, has a very colourful and interesting history. On the site of what is now the Workers' House, there used to be a pair of two-storey houses, no. 50 and no. 51. In their place, the distinctive Hotel Czap was built. The building then bore various other names, including Iglauer Hof, Hotel Morawetz, Hotel Jihlavský dvůr,and Deutsches Haus.

The area around the future Workers' House was marked by the fate of the Jewish community. In 1425, the Jews were expelled from Jihlava and were not allowed to settle permanently in the royal city of Jihlava. They could only access the city through the Gate of the Holy Mother (Brána Matky Boží) and had to leave the city by the end of the day. This is probably why the Panenské suburb was built, to enable the Jews to have a place to eat, sleep, and pray. Documents show that in 1775, a wayside inn was established in house no. 50 and it was sold to Johann and Theresa Smutny 14 years later. Jewish cuisine was mentioned. The Dovecote (Holubník) appears in the directory in 1806 as the name of the inn, but it was called Russia (Rusko) for a long time, dating back to 1799, when the Russian army was passing through Jihlava. According to Ladislav Vilímek, there was originally a Jewish prayer house on the site of the inn.

Hotel Czapwas built in the Panenské suburb on the site of the then demolished houses, no. 50 and no. 51. The houses last belonged to Josef and Anna Kessner, from whom Franz Gottfried Czap (1810–1900) bought them in September 1868. He was one of the most affluent citizens in Jihlava, the owner of a match factory and an ironmonger’s, as well as many houses and plots of land in the city and its environs. He lived on what is now Masarykovo Square in house number 42 with his wife, Maria, and their three daughters.

In 1868, Czap commissioned the Jihlava builders Franz and Mathias to carry out the preparatory work, draw up the plans, and implement the construction. It was to follow the design by Franz Lang in a style using Neo-Renaissance elements. The design of the large ballroom in the courtyard wing of the hotel was drawn up by August Prokop, a prominent architect of the time, a native of Jihlava, and a building councillor working in Brno. He was also the architect of the new synagogue in Velké Meziříčí (1867), the Pod Hradem gymnasium at Údolní Street 3 in Brno, and the chateau in Rantířov near Jihlava. There were to be ten rooms on the first floor and eleven on the second, all heated by tiled stoves. The foundation stone was laid on 1 October 1868, even before the completion of the approval process, and the official opening of Hotel Czapfollowed on 15 November 1869. The construction work, including the windows and the beer lift, was carried out by the Jihlava builder Vincenz Zeizinger. A number of important cultural events took place in the hotel. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra performed there, thirteen-year-old Gustav Mahler played there in 1873, and Edvard Beneš, Minister of Foreign Affairs, gave a lecture there in 1924. It did not take long for the imminent dark times to be felt, however, such as in 1935, when the hall was flooded by German supporters of Konrad Henlein.

During the Protectorate, the hotel, which was then called Deutsches Haus, underwent a significant transformationfrom 1940–1941. The changes were based on the plans by Emil Leo, a prominent Brno architect and professor at the local German University of Technology. The plans were approved by the city Building Authority on 17 November 1940. They mainly involved modernising the frontage, modifying all the interiors, and a further extension of the courtyard wing to increase the number of public rooms. In addition to the large ceremonial hall ("Festsaal") and its antechamber, Leo designed a smaller buffet room ("Buffetraum"), and an adjacent hall ("Nebensaaal"). The architect removed most of the decorative elements, including the gallery, and increased the capacity of the hall with a newly installed balcony. However, the project was not fully completed until after the war. The plans for the completion dated 22. 8. 1945 were drawn up at that time by the designer Horák, allegedly according to comments made by the architect Cesar Grimmich. Several other partial undated plans were made by the Jihlava builder Jan Dintar.

In 1951, the Babice Trial took place in the large ballroom. The building was placed under national administration and began to serve the needs of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In 1954, it belonged to the House of Public Education (Dům osvěty). In the courtyard, the TJ Slavoj Jihlava bowling alley could be found, which was also built in 1954. This was later followed by the Municipal House of Public Education (Městský dům osvěty), which made part of the building available for a clubhouse and offices of the headquarters of the national enterprise Pramen (1958). According to the plans stored in the State District Archive, the electrical wiring was modified in 1962, and a year later, the bowling alley was converted into a garage. Extensive renovations were carried out in 2006 by the builder and owner Jan Konicar.

FV