Residential building with the Slavia Café and shops

   
Since the beginning of the town's foundation, the Špitálská Gate (Špitálská brána), one of the five gates along the city wall, stood between the houses located today at Komenského Street 31 and 33 and the opposite houses at no. 30 and 32. The gate was demolished in 1849, the remains of the projecting bastion can be found in the direction of Bezručova Street and in the lower part of Komenského Street. In 1908, the narrow passage at the place of the demolished gate was extended to allow tram traffic. Already at the beginning of the 19th century, there were two houses with brewing rights situated along the city walls, with a passage left between them leading to the bailey along the line of today's houses on Jana Masaryka Street (formerly Švehlova Street), which was connected to Komenského Street in the 1920s. The new owner of the single-storey house at the corner of the streets was the Brno builder Antonín Pisinger, who in April 1938 requested permission to demolish the house bought from Marie Culková, a rag-and-bone woman, and to build a new three-storey commercial and residential building there. In June of the same year, Ladislav Korbelík, the owner of the Corsocafé located in the neighbouring building at Kapucínská Street 8 (now Divadelní Street 8), asked for the transfer of the hostelry and bartending concession to the planned new building. The construction progressed at a rapid pace – the rough construction was officially approved in November 1938 and the building was completed in April 1939.

With the combination of brickwork and reinforced concrete ceilings, the structural design and formal appearance of the corner house provided a modern solution. The façade on the first floor is almost entirely occupied by large café windows, which give the whole building a distinctive modernist look. The ground floor of the house was reserved for shops and a tavern with a taproom accessible from Komenského Street. Most of the first floor was occupied by the open, undivided space of the café. The café was adjoined by a gaming club and a clubhouse with windows to the courtyard, followed by a kitchen and toilets. The other two floors housed a total of eight two-room flats with facilities, accessible via two separate entrances from both streets. There were one-room studio flats in the converted attic. The furnishings of the café were supplied by the Jihlava company Činčerafollowing the example of large Prague cafés. The café had separate seating booths and a dance floor. Unfortunately, the last construction changes took a heavy toll on the café's equipment. Ladislav Korbelík ran the tavern and café throughout the turbulent war period. During the Heydrich period, he was denounced for anti-German activities. He allegedly committed the crime by shouting "Ať žije česká Jihlava!" (Long live Czech Jihlava!) in the café during a meeting of Jihlava athletes, which at the time carried the death penalty. Korbelík saved himself with the plausible argument that the informer must have misheard because what he had actually chanted was "Long live S.K. Jihlava!". No wonder he renamed the café Corso the very same year. However, he returned to its original name Slaviaimmediately after the end of the war. In 1949, he was forced to hand the café over to the Hospitality Enterprises of the Regional City of Jihlava (Pohostinské podniky krajského města Jihlavy), and later the national enterprise Restaurants and Canteens(Restaurace a jídelny) took over the management. The entire building was expropriated by the government in the 1960s and it was not returned to the heirs of the original owners Pisinger and Korbelík until after 1989 in restitution. Shortly after the war, a shop of the Práce publisher was established in the corner shop room, which was later transferred under the national enterprise Kniha. The book tradition has been kept alive here after the revolution thanks to the family bookshop of Antonín Otava. Now, the Kosmas bookshop can be found there.

JL
Literature and other sources 

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