Reconstruction of Pilsen Post and Telegraph Office
1925–1927

The monumental 1895 building, which replaced former Baroque burghers’ houses, became the dignified representative headquarters of the Post Office, which up to then had been housed in two buildings at different addresses. The Neo-Renaissance building was designed prior to 1893 by the Viennese Baubeamter (Building Officer) Friedrich Setz, the author of plans for Post Office buildings in a number of Imperial cities. The builder was the renowned Pilsen architect Rudolf Štech, whose name was connected with the construction of several local public buildings, generally in the aforementioned Neo-Renaissance style.

Friedrich Setz conceived the Post Office as a three-storey, double-winged building with a dominant corner tower with a cupola. He emphasised the mass of each wing with avant-corps accentuated by means of a row of high pilasters and volute gables with allegorical statuary above the cornice. He set the main entrance with three doorways in the corner tower, leading into a circular, two-storey high foyer.

The present-day appearance of the building is the result of a series of modifications and alterations undertaken in the course of the 20th century. In 1913–1914 alteration of the building and the construction of a courtyard wing were undertaken. In 1925–1927 the Pilsen builders Josef and Václav Pašek added a fourth storey to the building. In the course of this modification, the cupola was removed from the corner tower and the sculptural ornamentation was also removed and subsequently relocated in municipal gardens. The new floor served as an extended telephone exchange and telegraph office. The architectural character of the building was radically altered – the Neo-Renaissance facade acquired a Modernist appearance and the entrance was moved from the corner to the Solní Street side. The new facade unified the superstructure with the original building. It was decorated with rounded ornamentation passing vertically through two floors and continuing above the string course of the second floor up to the cornice. The windows in the avant corps were accentuated with receding profiled frames.

In 1970, extensive adaptation and reconstruction of the building was carried out, during the course of which the main entrance was resituated in the corner. The last alterations to the facades and interior were conducted in 1997.

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