The exhibition offers a view of the Jihlava houses from the beginning of the 20th century

Jihlava – The development of Jihlava after World War II had a negative impact on the appearance of the city, said Michaela Pacherová, the author of the exhibition "Jihlava Builders by Their Own Hands." According to her, the city could have aspired to be a vibrant center inspired by Vienna. The buildings from the early 20th century corresponded to this. Visitors to the Vysočina Regional Gallery can see for themselves starting today. The exhibition, which was created in collaboration with the district archive, will be open until October 13.

The aim of the exhibition is to promote public interest in Jihlava's architecture from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It consists of forty hand-drawn historical plans of the front facades of selected houses by significant local builders. These are complemented by photographs or a map of the city from 1924, which guides visitors to the individual houses. The exhibition is intended for both laypeople and professionals, including architects and students of construction schools or aesthetics.

Pacherová has already focused on the houses of Jihlava in her bachelor thesis. Later, she built a series of guided walks around the city based on it, which were held in cooperation with the gallery. The exhibition loosely follows these walks. It was created thanks to the State District Archive of Jihlava, where the plans are stored.

Before installation in the gallery, all the plans were handled by restorers. Among the most impressive is a sketch of a house on Tolstého Street built in 1911 according to the design of architect Josef Kubička. However, its current appearance bears little resemblance to the excellently executed design in delicate colors. However, it has not lost its valuable elements. According to Pacherová, the lack of care may have benefitted it. "Thanks to the fact that it hasn't been touched for 50 years, those details are preserved," she said.

Jihlava was the center of a German language island, and according to Pacherová, after World War II and the expulsion of the Germans, a similar fate awaited it as the Sudetenland. The disrupted connection between the inhabitants and the place where they live also affected the insensitivity of interventions towards the houses, streets, and squares.

While around 1900, due to the growing industry, exhibition villas were built in Jihlava, in the second half of the 20th century, the city saw the construction of the Prior in the middle of the main square, among other things.

According to Pacherová, Jihlava lost some valuable buildings even in recent years, when a functionalist pavilion of the hospital designed by Bohuslav Fuchs was demolished or barracks built according to a project by Franz Gruber at the end of the 19th century. On the other hand, a positive message is the successful reconstructions of some buildings or the preservation of the warehouse near the train station, which has been a cultural monument since this year.