Josef Gočár has three buildings in Pardubice; the museum commemorates 80 years since his death

Pardubice - The Grand Hotel in Pardubice, built in 1931 and converted into a shopping center, is undergoing a second major reconstruction. The first one in the 1990s was not very successful, and customers will have to wait until autumn for the second one. This was stated by historian Matěj Bekera from the East Bohemian Museum in Pardubice. The Grand was designed by Josef Gočár in the functionalist style. On Wednesday, it will be 80 years since the death of one of the most important architects. People can come for a guided walk about the buildings that the architect designed in the city on Saturday, September 13.

"Gočár was recognized by the Chamber of Architects as the greatest Czech architect of the 20th century. In Pardubice, he has three notable works: the Grand Hotel, Anglobanka, and the automatic mills. The Grand was the most luxurious hotel in the city, a room there cost over 100 crowns, whereas workers earned about 500 to 600 crowns a month at that time," Bekera said.

In the hotel interior, Gočár designed marble staircases, used quality materials, and there was a glass ceiling in the large lounge that illuminated the space. Neon lights, which were typical of functionalism, provided the lighting. "There was a lot of patterned furniture, surprisingly for us, in distinctly blue and red colors. Gočár designed the entire interior of the restaurant, café, wine bar, and the basement cinema Sport," Bekera said.

The Grand Hotel was surrounded by blue cladding on the façade so that it did not have the usual light façade common to the surrounding buildings. In the 1930s, local newspapers joked about the tiles because they fell off in the frost. The building was very expensive, but the cladding did not hold, Bekera added.

The Grand served for accommodation, was a social center, and the district administration had its place on the right side. In modern history, a private owner converted the Grand, which is a cultural monument, into a shopping center. "A large part of the interior of the Grand was demolished. Original artistic-historical details were destroyed. In this regard, it may be a shame. The building was primarily protected from the outside, not the interior," Bekera said.

The first owner of the Grand later sold it to buy it back in 2019. Since the end of 2023, work has been underway on its second modernization, partly aiming to restore the original appearance of the interiors. New, however, will be a glass atrium facing Míru Street. "The glass atrium did not convince me that it is something that returns to Gočár. The preservationists approved it; there is nothing to discuss. I will be surprised with the interiors when I see the reality," Bekera said.

Opposite the Grand stands Anglobanka, today's Komerční banka. Gočár was its court architect. "He modified its headquarters in Prague, designed the bank in Hradec. In Pardubice, it is a monumental banking palace from 1925. In the 90s, most of the interiors were demolished," the historian said. The Grand and the bank are stylistically different, as the bank is in modern classical style.

The most prominent building by Gočár is the automatic mills. "The factory of Josef Prokop did the project for the building; Gočár did not do the layout solution; he was responsible for the façade," Bekera said. The first part was completed in 1911, he added.