The new book presents 50 famous villas in the Ústí nad Labem Region

Ústí nad Labem - A collection of 50 architecturally significant representative villas in the region from the mid-19th century is presented in a new publication titled Famous Villas of the Ústí Region. Its editor Tomáš Pavlíček told journalists today at the Emil Filla Gallery in Ústí before the opening of the accompanying exhibition that there are many more interesting villas in the region. The book mainly contains buildings for which some information and stories could be gathered.
    Mapping the villas according to the authors of the book was not at all straightforward, as there were almost no materials preserved for many of them. Additionally, many of the houses belonged to Jews who were taken away to concentration camps by the Nazis, or to Sudeten Germans who had to leave after the war. It is allegedly very difficult to find witnesses.
    According to Pavlíček, the authors gathered materials for the publication for about six months, for example in archives, chronicles, or various old professional magazines. Co-author Martin Krsek stated that in two cases they used the chronicles of a kindergarten, for instance.
    Most of the villas documented in the publication are not accessible to the public. The authors of the book had to convince the owners to allow them to photograph the houses, and in some cases even the interiors. According to photographer Marta Pavlíková, some owners are very accommodating, especially older people whose families have owned the houses for several generations. Others are said to have needed a long time to persuade. Particularly cautious are the owners of new villas. Pavlíček added that there are very few such properties in the region, while most of them are from the interwar period.
    Many villas did not make it into the book because their owners managed to destroy them with careless renovations. Examples include inappropriate plastic windows and other modifications. According to Pavlíček, in addition, the vast majority of the houses do not have their original gardens preserved, which architects very often designed together. There are cases where owners have destroyed the villa. As an example, the authors mention a large estate villa in Sýrovic in the Louny region, where someone uprooted everything valuable in the 1990s and allegedly took it to the Netherlands. The house is now threatened with demolition.
    The collection Famous Villas of the Ústí Region is part of a project during which the Foibos agency maps all rare villas in the regions of the republic. So far, similar publications have been released about Prague, Brno, and the Olomouc, South Moravian, and South Bohemian regions.