Arnošt Jenšovský

Arnošt Jenšovský studied civil engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague and from 1864 worked briefly as an assistant at the school. Then he was employed at the Prague City Hall, where he later attained the title of building councilor. During this period he worked mainly with the city engineer Josef Srdínek in designing various public buildings.

In the mid-1970s, these included educational institutes conceived in the Neo-Renaissance style, such as the grammar school in Hellichova Street or the school in today’s Školská Street (1874–1877). The now defunct building was part of the Museum of the Capital City of Prague and decorated the adjacent city park. In 1883, Jenšovský embarked on a career as a private builder and managed to apply his perfect knowledge of the Italian and French Renaissance outside Prague. His work in the east of Bohemia is interesting – in Josefov, he won a competition for the design of the new town hall, which was built in 1884 as the only Neo-Renaissance building in the Classical and Empire style fortress. Its main boast was a large auditorium with a richly decorated stucco ceiling and fine paintings. A year later, the monumental boys’ school building in neighboring Jaroměř, designed by Jenšovský, was inaugurated. In 1888 he became a member of the Society of Architects and Engineers in the Kingdom of Bohemia and started his own business together with Jan Zábranský. They designed, for example, a garden house in Přemyslova Street in Vyšehrad, this time developing Neo-Romanesque elements in its morphology (1888). Their portfolio also includes a tenement house with a richly decorated façade in Mikulandská Street (1891).

In Mnichovo Hradiště, Arnošt Jenšovský was given the opportunity to design another town hall, which also boasted a beautiful theatre hall (1893). At the beginning of the new century, he also used his skills and accumulated capital to his own advantage. He built a pair of tenement houses on the Vltava embankment, one of which he kept in his possession. However, the building was destroyed in an air raid in 1945; today the famous Dancing House stands in its place. As part of his creative range in historicizing styles, Jenšovský also managed to embrace the Neo-Baroque style when he designed the Rudolfinum palace or the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in Hradec Králové in Pospíšilova Street (1901). After his experience in Josefov, the architect returned to the urban use of land in the abolished fortress cadaster. Towards the end of his career, Jenšovský at least symbolically touched upon the emerging modernist tendencies by designing the courtyard wing of the complex in Žitná Street, whose façade was enhanced by Art Nouveau decorations.

  

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