The exhibition offers a view of unique Art Nouveau buildings in Plzeň

Plzeň - A great wealth of buildings from the Art Nouveau period is offered by Plzeň. Several of them were realized at a time when the style was just being born in Vienna. The group of houses that were built here before 1900 belongs to the most frequent manifestations of Art Nouveau in Central Europe, said heritage conservationist Petr Domanický today to ČTK. He drew attention to the exhibition of photographs titled Plzeň in the Art Nouveau Era, which began today in the Mázhauz of the Plzeň Town Hall and will last until July 6.
The designs of the Art Nouveau houses in Plzeň were created by, for example, architect František Krásný, a native of Koterov. Thanks to local investors willing to try out the then young and extravagant style for its time, three apartment buildings built in 1897 and 1898 still stand on Bedřich Smetana Street, along with the Art Nouveau villa of Marie in Lochotín.
According to Domanický, the period after 1905 is also unique. A whole group of apartment buildings in Plzeň was then built by builder Karel Bubla. Tourists from all over the world come to see the most famous of them, a multi-story building with red windows and ceramic details on Dominikánská Street. "Other Bubla houses stand on Hálková and Palackého streets. There were others too, but they disappeared in the 70s and 80s," said the heritage conservationist. To this day, it is said that it has not been possible to say for certain who the authors of the houses are. "They were built by builder Bubla, but it has not been proven who designed them," he noted.
The exact number of Art Nouveau houses in Plzeň cannot be determined. "It is a question of where Art Nouveau begins and where it ends. There are obvious examples, but there are also many neo-Renaissance buildings that have painting and sculpture Art Nouveau decorations," he added. There are dozens of such objects in the city, including the building of the theater, museum, and railway station.
A unique feature of Plzeň remains the Kalikovský Bridge. It represents a connection of a technical structure of supermodern design and Art Nouveau style. The reinforced concrete beam structure by the Müller and Kapsa company, originally from Plzeň, was simultaneously conceived in organic shapes with an interesting color solution.
The specific and distinctive face of Plzeň's Art Nouveau was attempted to be captured in photographs by Radovan Kodera, a photographer from the Plzeň branch of the National Heritage Institute, and the exhibition corresponds with the eponymous book that the institute's staff published some time ago.