BRNO’S ARCHITECTURE

Zeman Café (Zemanova kavárna)

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  • The first functionalist building in Brno

  • Rashly demolished and then later rebuilt

  • Inspired by a new concept by Le Corbusier

A turning point in the development of architecture in Brno

The construction of this café in 1925 ended the long search for new concepts and set the trend for further development – the revolutionary concept of architecture by Le Corbusier. This small building by architect Bohuslav Fuchs is located in the park at Koliště where a wooden pavilion called Café Shopp used to be. Today, it is called the Pavillon Steak House and almost no one has any idea that it was once among the first strictly functionalist buildings not only in Brno, but in the whole of Czechoslovakia as well. The café was designed as a compact structure with large red sash windows that connected the interior with the patio and park.

This unique building was rashly demolished in 1964 to make room for Janáčkovo divadlo (the Janáček Theatre). In 1991, the idea to restore the café in some other place emerged for the first time, and the replica of the Zeman Café was ceremoniously opened on 24 March 1995, on the centenary of Fuchs’s birth. The harmonious building thus lives on with most of its original aesthetic elements, even if ‘only’ as a replica.

Address and contact

Jezuitská 6
60200 Brno

Zeman Café

Brno Architecture Manual – a guide to 1918–1945 architekture

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