Town House, Masarykovo Square 21

The town houses on Jihlava’s square represent the oldest and most opulent examples of their kind. As far back as the end of the 13th century, the perimeter of the square was already partly lined with stone architecture. The origins of house no. 21 also belong to this period. The remnants of the beamed ceiling of the oldest cellar were dated to 1280. The houses on the square were originally built with arcades, but these gradually disappeared in the Middle Ages. The fundamental development of Jihlava’s architecture can be dated back to the 16th and early 17th centuries, to a period of upheaval, catastrophes, as well as unrepeated economic prosperity. A series of devastating fires created the conditions for the construction of impressive Renaissance palaces, including the house on Masarykovo Square.

The Thirty Years' War left Jihlava devastated. The total population had dropped by about one sixth by the end of the 1640s, 133 houses were deserted, and 107 were damaged or destroyed. The captions in a 1647 veduta depicting the town describe the suburbs of Jihlava as "gone", without any house structures.

House no. 21 was likely abandoned as well. From the extensive and costly repairs and replacements of the wooden structures carried out from the 1720s to 1740s, we can conclude that the house had been in a very neglected, even dilapidated condition and probably uninhabitable. In 1779, the malt house with a relative value of 1,000 Guldens was one of the twenty most valuable houses in the town. Like most other buildings in Jihlava, this house was not spared later classical adaptations either. Originally a generously proportioned and expensively furnished building for a single owner and user, it was gradually adapted to accommodate several different families, whose number had been increasing in towns since the end of the 18th century. In the 19th century, the house staircase was also modified, and after a fire in 1893, the house received a new simple roof instead of the mansard one. From the middle to the end of the century, the number of registered house residents varied from eight to fifty, and the structure of the house was also adapted to this fluctuation more or less randomly. Purchased by the town in 1907, the house continued to be used in the same spirit throughout the 20th century without undergoing any major renovation. It was therefore preserved in a condition that did not look attractive at first sight. Apart from the late Baroque façade with a Renaissance portal and an old gate, and apart from the vaulted interior spaces, it probably did not stand out for its great historical features. What is more interesting are the constructions and surfaces that were hidden before and are now in large part exposed.

The typical features of the house consist in its three-section layout, with a central service and communication wing and a spacious great hall with a corridor on the ground floor. The oldest Gothic building layer includes the cellars, originally flat-ceilinged and later fitted with stone vaults, and a pair of unequal vaults strutted into a central arcaded passage in the northern cellar. Some parts of the above-ground masonry and the vault of the passage to the courtyard are also Gothic. The Renaissance layer on the ground floor includes an entrance shield with the monogram AK, and a cubit measurement tool. The portal leads into a spacious great hall, through which the courtyard and other rooms can be accessed, including the back room, which is covered by an exposed beam ceiling with structural elements from the 1520s and an illusory marble painting. At the eastern wall, the ceiling is additionally supported by a massive beam dating back to 1719. The layout on the first floor develops around a central vaulted hall. The room facing the square also received a ceiling with a stucco mirror in the Baroque period, but this has only survived as an impression. The construction of the beam ceilings in the rear wing dates from the late 1570s. They were repaired and repainted during the Baroque restoration. The second floor of the house was added on top of the Renaissance attic, probably at the same time that the roof structure was replaced before the mid-18th century. The façade with baroque elements and the incomplete classical frame of the Renaissance portal also date back to the same period as the superstructure, or more likely to the end of the 18th century.

The project for the restoration of the house was based on an assignment which followed an evaluation of a set of historic houses owned by the city. The targeting of the proposed operational programme was preceded by a good knowledge of the facility and an examination of the various operational schemes. The building was laser scanned, a model was created, and important pre-project surveys were carried out: a structural-historical and structural-technical survey, including a static load survey and a survey of the wooden structures, plaster stratigraphy, and moisture. More than sixty wood samples were taken during the construction and about forty wooden elements were dated with certainty. The results helped to date the construction phases with absolute certainty, including the crucial Baroque restoration. After the removal of the concrete overlays, it was possible to better identify and explain the historical development of the cellar. A relocated late Gothic portal was discovered between the rooms on the ground floor, while paintings primarily from the 18th and 19th centuries were partially uncovered on the first and second floors.

Alongside many smaller findings, the discovery of the equipment of a medieval royal mint was both charming and significant. It was unearthed by archaeologists in a house yard during the foundation work for an extension and included anvils, stamping dies, a mould for silver stick casting, moulds for stamping die casting, coin weights for testing stamping die impressions, and a fragment of a metallurgical crucible. Silver coins were minted in Jihlava until 1300, when King Wenceslas II concentrated coin minting in Kutná Hora. The exact location of the mint in Jihlava has never been determined. It could have been one of the Royal Mint's establishments, or possibly a mint workshop. A small coin with a dragon or a horse, called bracteate, which – judging by the stamping die mould found – was minted in Jihlava, will probably become the symbol of the whole house. During an archaeological survey, Gothic tiles with the depiction of the Jihlava hedgehog and the Czech lion were also found.

The city commissioned the architect Marek Štěpán to restore the house based on his good references and experience with historical and contemporary buildings. From the very beginning, the city formulated the restoration plan together with preservationists, who guided the architect on the specific value of the building and possible approaches to it. Therefore, the design also envisages respect for all historical layers up to the 19th century. The importance of the whole building is underlined by its corner position and by the projecting frontage facing Brněnská Street, formerly the less important Branská Street. The house faces the square with a Baroque-Classical frontage and a Renaissance portal. The purpose of the restoration is to reflect on the complex historical legacy and its complex spatial and historical layered structure, rehabilitating it where the degree of preservation is greater, and confidently adding contemporary artistic resources in places with a more limited presence of original structures and elements. The operational and technological obsolescence of the house is undergoing the most discreet rectification.

The building will represent the city and present its architectural assets. The proposed use corresponds with the investor's interest in allowing the historic building to shine in its original spatial, material, and style generosity, while presenting it to the widest possible audience as an architectural masterpiece that stands out for the unique rhythm of the new and old within the house. The whole is linked by a metallic and silver line. The operational scheme corresponds to a certain extent to the operation of a Renaissance patrician house, which is characterised by a specific link to the public space and the hierarchical use of impressive interior spaces linked to a spacious central corridor. From the very beginning, the location of the lift became a topic of discussion. The position in the vaulted chambers next to the staircase hall allowed the installation of a lift of the smallest necessary dimensions without interference with the vertical structures. During the removal of the arches of the vaults to be demolished for the route of the lift, the remains of a probably Renaissance stairwell were discovered above the younger vault from the 19th century. The new vertical route has thus replaced its defunct predecessor.

Underneath the new layers were old plank floors that have been restored. Various historical paintings were discovered under the contemporary wall paintings, while old painted beam ceilings were found under the reed ceilings. Part of the work therefore included restoration of paintings. The exposed Renaissance ceiling in a small room on the first floor surprised with its almost intact condition without major repairs.

On the exterior, the overall restoration was mainly manifested by a new courtyard extension, a change of the roof area design, replacement of the windows, and a different presentation of the Renaissance portal together with the classical plastered frame, as shown in the oldest photographs of the house. The architect Štěpán designed the extension as a composite addition, which allows for the relocation of the storage space and part of the sanitary facilities, and at the same time allows for the preservation of the commercial operation on the ground floor along with adequate access to the garden.

The wooden structures above the third floor, including the truss structure, were in poor technical condition before the restoration. Parts of the ceiling and trussing were infested with wood-decay fungus and longhorn beetles. During the renovation, they were therefore replaced with a new ceiling and truss construction with a combination of steel and glued profiles. The proposed architectural solution makes use of this new situation to provide atypical lighting of the attic through the slit above the cornice. Another source of light is provided by atypically designed roof lights.

The monumental values are no less contemporary than any other values. During their restoration, this was taken into account. Monuments are not a thing of the past; they are part of our current world and provide a unique testimony to its existence. Their uniqueness, as well as the fact that they form a tradition, can be inspiring today, and this is how the concept of the renovation of house no. 21 was approached and implemented. The unusual solution for the restoration of this town house, which was based on the knowledge of its historical nature and its monumental and architectural values, and which individually pursued the possibilities and appropriateness of the dialogue between the historical and the contemporary, thus represents a novel, somewhat polemical, but at the same time exemplary approach to our building heritage.

JN