František Srdínko’s Tenement House

František Srdínko was a prominent lawyer and real estate dealer from Hradec Králové. He owned a large and important garden in the Prague Suburbs (Pražské Předměstí), including a cottage where the Czech writer Ignát Hermann lived.
 

 n 24 May 1894, František Srdínko applied for a building permit for his corner house near the only bridge over the Elbe River in the city. The construction was completed on 27 June 1895, and the occupancy permit was issued on 4 July of the same year.
 

In the basement of the new building, there were cellars, storage rooms, and a boiler room with fuel storage. The ground floor hosted four shops facing the street; behind two of these, there were storage rooms, a two-roomed apartment and a three-roomed apartment – both with a kitchen. Upstairs, there were two apartments, one for František Srdínko’s family with six rooms, a kitchen, a pantry, facilities, and a maid’s room; the other, smaller apartment had four rooms, a kitchen, a pantry, and a bathroom. On the second floor, there were also two apartments – one had three rooms with a kitchen, a maid’s room, a pantry, and a bathroom; the other four rooms and the same facilities.
 

The architect, whose name remains unknown, designed the façade inspired by rich Neo-Renaissance patterns. The corner is defined by a semicircular bay window carrying a balcony on the second floor. The ground floor features plastic bossage, while the upper floors facing the Eliščino nábřeží Embankment and Mostecká Street exhibit unplastered masonry. The windows boast rich lining on the first floor with a triangular suprafenestra; on the second floor, they are adorned with a straight cornice. The windows in the corner segment are adorned with ionic pilasters and stucco balustrades in addition to the molded cornice in the suprafenestra. The windows on the ground floor have only stucco arches. The crown cornice finds support in metopes.
 

The fusion of opulent stucco decoration with classical elements and unplastered masonry illustrates the gradual infusion of modern architectural principles into the conventional patterns of the late nineteenth century. From the architect’s profound understanding of the most current trends and his status as one of the busiest architects of tenement construction in the city this period, one might deduce the involvement of the contractor and architect Viktor Weinhengst in the design.
 

In 1904, Julius Russ, a distinguished photographer from Hradec Králové, established a branch in one of the stores and had new shop windows crafted from richly carved wooden frames.
 

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