Olomouc conservationists want Ander’s villa to be a monument

OLOMOUC - Olomouc heritage protectors want to include the villa of entrepreneur and patron Josef Ander in the list of state-protected monuments at Svatý Kopeček in Olomouc. According to experts, the building is a unique example of a functionalist representative residential house, whose artistic value reached the highest level in the scale of all of Czechoslovakia. Whether the villa will become a monument will be decided by the Ministry of Culture.
"With a bit of exaggeration, one could say that this is the Olomouc Tugendhat villa," said Irena Blažková from the Olomouc office of the National Heritage Institute to ČTK today. However, she noted that this unique building is significantly devastated and that it will no longer be possible to reconstruct all of its structural elements.
"In the 1990s, reconstruction began, but since then the building has been deteriorating," she explained. However, the heritage protectors would also accept a repair that would sensitively utilize replicas. The owner of the house is the company I. B. O., which is now in bankruptcy.
The villa was built between 1933 and 1934 according to the design of the prominent Czech architect Bohumír F. A. Čermák.

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The photograph shows another Olomouc building by Bohumír Čermák for entrepreneur Josef Ander - department store ASO (Ander and son). Ander also initiated the construction of the nearby football stadium - now Ander Stadium.