Sokol House

The Sokol gymnastics organisation in Jihlava was founded in 1892. In 1924, it opened a small summer training ground on the corner of Tolstého and Tyršova (formerly Sadová) Streets near Smetana’s Orchards (Smetanovy sady, formerly Městské sady), where the “Small Ice Rink” (Malý zimáček) of the Horácký Ice Arena (Horácký zimní stadion) can now be found. In 1927, the Association for the construction of the Sokol House in Jihlava (Spolek pro postavení sokolovny v Jihlavě) was founded. Shortly afterwards, the members of the Sokol movement bought an adjoining plot of land with warehouses from the tobacco factory opposite the Palace of Justice (Justiční palác) and began to prepare an architectural tender for the construction of a Sokol House on the extended training ground. It was clear from the beginning, in accordance with Sokol ideas, that the building would serve to cultivate both the body and the mind, i.e. it would be used both as a gym and as a social hall with a cinema. Pragmatically speaking, the cinema was supposed to contribute to further Sokol construction activities.

In 1930, the Jihlava organisation announced the architectural tender for the design. As a matter of interest, the only external member of the selection committee was to be the Brno architect Bohumír František Antonín Čermák, who had recently participated in the design of the interior furnishings of Jihlava Hospital Surgical Pavilion. However, following criticism from the Association of Czech Engineers and Architects SIA (Spolek českých inženýrů a architektů SIA), he was removed from the commission. At the last minute, Josef Gočár, who was then the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, was appointed to the commission. In the tender, 25 designs were submitted from architects all over Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately, none of the designs have survived. The winning design was created by the Brno architect Bohuslav Fuchs, who situated a three-storey building on an L-shaped floor plan in the corner of the training ground, on the street corner with the main entrance to the quieter Tyršova Street. The three-storey building with a reinforced concrete structure with two sections separated sports and social use in its interior. The architect subsequently developed several versions of the design, reducing the built-up area on the defined training ground. After the whole rigmarole of the announcement of the tender, in the end, Fuchs' project from 1930 was not implemented. From the very beginning, he struggled with the lack of space on the selected plot with the summer training ground.

In 1931, the organisation acquired a plot of land on the opposite side of Tyršova Street, which was more convenient for the construction of the Sokol House. The land contained a garden with a house belonging to MUDr. Leopold Fritz, a patron and leader of the Czech community in Jihlava and co-founder of the Jihlava Sokol organisation. However, further progress was delayed until 1935 due to the economic crisis. Sokol members once again approached Bohuslav Fuchs, who designed a compact three-storey building with a cellar, and with the main halls one above the other. The foundation stone of the new Sokol House was laid during a ceremony held on 23 June 1935. The construction contract was awarded to the Brno branch of the construction company Václav Nekvasil. The operational plan divided the building into three sections – a lower projecting cube in the north frontage with technical facilities, a segmentally roofed wide wing with two main halls, and a west side structure with a side entrance to the hall and the Sokol member flat. The structure is a reinforced concrete skeleton with exposed fired brick linings and large window areas. The architect placed an accentuating element in the form of a staircase avant-corps with full-glass frontage in the corner. Part of the avant-corps is carried up to the first floor on slender pillars, with a covered walkway along the west side. The separate areas of the cinema screening room and gymnasiums with facilities had separate entrances via the frontage from Tolstého Street, which were covered by a canopy. Fuchs probably also designed the interior accessories, such as the pendant lights in the cinema screening room. The SOKOL sign was mounted on the western wall of the staircase avant-corps, and the cinema attracted visitors with a neon sign on the side. In total, the construction cost CZK 1,190,559.

The new Sokol House opening ceremony took place on 31 May 1936. The Stadioncinema was in operation from 26 October 1935, when it opened with a screening of the film Marysha (Maryša). Fuchs' project envisaged the addition of a separate building with a café along Tolstého Street, which was to be connected to the eastern side of the entrance part of the Sokol House by a raised walkway on the first floor. However, this never came to fruition. After the occupation of Jihlava in 1939, the Sokol organisation fell on hard times, and many Sokol leaders were arrested and taken to concentration camps. In April 1941, the Sokol organisation was dissolved. After the war, the renewed organisation yet again contemplated expanding the Sokol House and also considered building a spa, an indoor swimming pool, and other modifications to the training ground, but the further course of events thwarted its plans. After the Sokol organisation was dissolved in 1952, the Sokol House was transferred to the administration of TJ Tatran, then under TJ Dynamo and TJ Modeta. Most likely in the 1950s, when the cinema was being modified for widescreen projection, a ground floor corridor was added along the eastern perimeter wall, providing an additional entrance from the main frontage, allowing side access to the screening room and widening the screen at the expense of the original side entrances from the lobby. At the same time, the outdoor spiral iron staircase, characteristic of Fuchs, leading to the screening room was removed and replaced with a brick staircase extension. Later modifications brought further changes, such as the separation of the main entrance from the staircase avant-corps and the gradual replacement of the windows. However, some of the original door panels with fittings, parts of the railings, terrace staircases, and red xylolite coatings of the staircases have been preserved in the interior. During the war, the cinema was briefly renamed Viktoria, and from the late 1950s to the 1990s, it operated under the name Panorama. The Sokol cinema ceased operating in 2008, and according to the 2009 design of the Humpolec studio OK PLAN ARCHITECTS, the auditorium was adapted for the needs of the DIOD Open Door Theatre (Divadlo otevřených dveří DIOD).

The Jihlava Sokol House still serves its original purpose today and represents the most important interwar functionalist building in the city.

JL