Adalbertinum Community House

The construction of the monumental solitary building beneath the Imperial and Royal Governor’s Office in 1895 was sponsored by the Bishop of Hradec Králové, Eduard Brynych. The agile organizer of Catholic social and political life joined other clergymen and founded a press cooperative ‘under the protection of St. John of Nepomuk, which has aims to distribute writings and letters written in a religious spirit.’ [1] The institution also published important periodicals such as Časové úvahy, and especially the weekly Obnova. Due to the location of the printing house, it was necessary to proceed with the construction of its own building, which would also be suitable for other activities of the cooperative such as public meetings and lectures, meetings of associations, and editorial work. The 900th anniversary of St. Adalbert’s martyrdom, who gave the name to the Catholic house, Adalbertinum, seemed to be an ideal opportunity. There was not much time left, and it was necessary to proceed quickly with the preparation of the project. 

 

The then chairman of the cooperative, Alois Frýdek, approached the local architect Viktor Weinhengst. His design was then checked by engineer František Hellmann from Jaroměř, who also presented four variants of a possible solution. Eventually, one of the variants was chosen, while Weinhengst was entrusted with the supervision of the construction. For Hellmann, as a fresh holder of a contractor license, this was probably the first major commission (he might have designed the stylistically related 1888villa of Jan Náhlovský in Jaroměř though it is not reliably documented). He designed a public two-storey building next to the seminary garden on a rectangular ground plan with the main wing, two symmetrical side wings, and a lower rear part, enclosing a spacious courtyard between them. The plans were approved in July 1896 and the entire construction was completed at the beginning of October of the following year despite the problems with the foundation of the building which was built on a muddy plot with the remains of fortress buildings. The whole building is therefore equipped with a stone plinth. 

 

In the basement, there were beer, wine and tenant cellars, as well as a laundry room and a mangle room. The ground floor included a restaurant with a bar, apartments for the caretaker, the innkeeper and the printing house accountant, a bookstore, the editorial office of Obnova, a room for maids, a dormitory for journeymen, and a printing house, which the cooperative bought from the inheritance of J. L. Pospíšil. On the first floor, there was a diocesan museum and there were association rooms, a flat for the director of the printing house, five guest rooms, and a representative association hall, and in the rear part, there was a typesetting room and other association offices. Part of the second floor was the chapel of St. Adalbert with an altar by Antonín Sucharda. The designs also envisaged the establishment of a diocesan museum. The main façade of the free-standing Baroque palace is articulated by shallow avant-corps – a central and two corner bays. The entrance is demarcated by pairs of semi-columns that carry a stone balcony with a balustrade. The ground floor is defined by banded plastic rustication and windows with semicircular endings and voussoirs. Above the cordon cornice, rectangular windows predominate, decorated with tympanums on the first floor. The central bay bears stucco decoration of plant forms and is topped by a two-storey volute gable and an octagonal tower with a lantern and finial. The corner bays are flanked on each side by a pair of avant-corps and culminate in segmental gables with oval cartouches and lower bell-shaped towers. On the façade of the right wing, the location of the main hall is clearly visible, indicated by semicircular windows over two floors high. Above them, there is an acanthus band with the inscription ‘Adalbertinum.’ The basic mass of the building is separated from the saddle roof by a profiled crowning cornice with denticles. 

 

A number of local craftsmen participated in the implementation: carpenter Josef Hlavatý from Prague Suburbs, locksmith František Paulík, tinsmith Štěpán Paul from Hradec Králové, or glazier Josef Hoza from Kuklen. In addition to their work, the high value of the building is evidenced by the materials used, such as English slate on the roof, granite on the main three-flight staircase or unusually high-quality wooden planks, oak parquet friezes and brushed terrazzo on the floors in the interior. 

 

MP

 

Notebook:

[1] NOVOTNÝ, Josef. Biskup Brynych, životopisné črty. Hradec Králové: 1923, p. 248.