Kávoprůmysl

In 1918, the company Kávoprůmysl spojenských družstevních sušáren (Coffee Industry of Allied Roaster) was founded in Prague, which operated chicory processing plants to produce coffee substitutes under the names Kavona, Kavila and Obillka. The products have gradually gained popularity among consumers. The location of the factory in Hradec Králové, or Kukleny, was based on the fact that the Hradec Králové region had been the center of chicory cultivation and processing since the beginning of the 20th century. There were a number of drying kilns, roasters and factories for coffee substitutes, among which the Coffee Industry stood out after its construction.
 

The project of the modern premises of Kávoprůmysl was developed by the prominent architect Oldřich Liska from Hradec Králové and carried out by the Hradec Králové company Společnost stavitelů s.r.o. 
 

The building No. 361 was originally conceived as a porter’s house. The construction of the building took place from August 1919 to February 1921. It is a brick partially basement ground-floor building with a saddle roof. It was lit by three two-part windows and another six smaller windows. The façade was simple; the only decorations were chambranles and cornices framing the house gable and foundation. A distinctive element of the house is the arcade at the entrance to the gatehouse. On the ground floor, there were living rooms for the needs of the porter – a room, a kitchen, and several smaller rooms. 
 

For administrative, representative and residential purposes, building No. 362 was built. The construction of the house began in January 1920 and was completed in March 1921. It was a two-storey brick building with a full basement and a hipped roof. Lighting was provided by a number of one-, two-part and four-part windows. The façade of the administrative and residential building of Kávoprůmysl was segmented by cornices, chambranles and columns, thus showing elements of Neo-Classicism. In addition to the Kávoprůmysl building, the architect also used them during the ongoing reconstruction of the LIDO BIO cinema, now known as the Střelnice House of Culture. The rectangular ground plan of the building was disrupted by a staircase bay, an entrance terrace with four semi-columns and an apse. On the ground floor, it was possible to enter the staircase tower from the terrace, which was separated from the other areas and the only access to it was from the terrace. From the terrace, there was an entrance to the waiting room, toilets, a bathroom, a meeting room, the director’s office, two offices, and a cash desk, also accessible directly from the terrace. On the first floor of the house there was a large apartment, toilets, a bathroom, a bedroom, two rooms, a kitchen, a pantry and a maid’s room. On the second floor, there were two housing units with a shared bathroom and kitchen. In 1940, a plan was drawn up for an extension to the administrative and residential building of the factory, which was designed and implemented by Jan Kříž from Hradec Králové. Construction began in October 1940 and lasted until October of the following year. The extension was built on the north side of the building and it was a ground-floor basement building with a shed roof. The façade of the extension was conceived in the same style as the main administrative building. The building was thus expanded by three more office rooms. 
 

The construction of building No. 363, which served as a warehouse for roasted chicory, began in July 1921 and was completed in November of the same year. It is a simple hall building with a saddle roof made of brickwork. The façade is made of sand-lime bricks and is articulated by a number of semi-columns and cornices, which also line the gable of the building. The windows are metal, factory type, and the entrance to the building is designed by a massive sliding gate.
 

The construction of the main factory building began in February 1920 and was completed in March 1921. The factory building is a three-storey monumental building with a partial basement, dominated by a sprinkler tower. In the tower, which is topped with a rounded roof, a staircase and a water reservoir were placed. The building was lit by a number of tall metal factory windows. The façade made of sand-lime bricks was decorated with semi-columns and cornices. On the ground floor, there were the premises of the roasting plant, the mill, the room for filling machines, the extensive packing room, the heating rooms, and the dispatch room, connected to the railway siding by a ramp. On the first floor, there was a gallery of the roastery, a mill, a packing room and a label shop, along with a cloakroom and toilets for men. On the second floor, there was a mill room, connected to the chicory warehouse building by a footbridge, as well as printing houses, a storeroom, and rooms for the company’s employees in the form of a dressing room and toilets for women. The modern equipment of the factory, which was located in this building, enabled the fully automated production of coffee substitutes from roasting the raw materials, through its roasting, to packaging and its dispatch. In the mid-1920s, an extension was added to the eastern side of building No. 389, which expanded the factory cellars and ground floor rooms. 
 

In addition to the dominant buildings of the Kávoprůmysl complex, smaller buildings were built in the 1920s. These were a building of cowsheds and a woodshed, a locksmith’s workshop with garages, a wooden warehouse, and a simple brick petrol warehouse at No. 388. 

The company survived the years of WWII without any problems, but after the war it was nationalized and at the end of the 1950s incorporated into the former factory of Jindřich Franck, later Kávoviny in Pardubice, whose plant was larger than the Kávoprůmysl. The area later became the property of the engineering works Závody vítězného února, later ZVU, a.s. At present, the area is used by various companies, such as an agency providing marketing and printing services, a tire service and a car repair shop. Today, the administrative building serves as a hostel under a name referring to the company that had the modernist complex built – Kavák. 
 

Some buildings would be searched in vain for today, as they have been demolished over the years. These include, for example, the roasting plant building, which was part of the factory building No. 389 and was adjacent to it from the north side. It was demolished in the 1990s. The same fate befell the cowsheds, woodshed and several other smaller buildings. The gatehouse has retained its original character and volume to this day, only the two-part windows were replaced with one-piece ones. The entrance to the complex with side, arched, roofed entrance gates with semi-columns and a base wall made of sand-lime bricks has been preserved in a very close condition to the original. Insensitive modifications mainly affected the administrative and residential building, which was painted yellow and the original decorative façade was replaced by a uniform one. The only preserved decorative elements are the chambranles lining the windows on the first floor and some cornices. The original wooden windows were replaced with one-piece plastic ones. One floor was added to the extension from the 1940s, and after WWII, another building was added to it. The main factory building has retained a high degree of authenticity, but most of the metal factory windows have been replaced by plastic ones, which do not respect the original window partitions. The most authentically preserved to this day is the warehouse of dried chicory, which was declared an immovable cultural monument in 2020 thanks to its authenticity. According to the National Heritage Institute, the building is ‘the only example of an industrial building by the prominent architect Oldřich Liska.’ The warehouse is thus ‘an example of a layout and structural solution that is not unique, but in most cases similar buildings are in poor technical condition and do not have a promising use.’ The former warehouse is owned by the Veteran Car Club Hradec Králové, which is trying to renovate the building and open it to the public; an exhibition of historic vehicles is to be located here.
 

KK