Masaryk School
1921–1923

The very first school building constructed in Pilsen after the foundation of the independent Czechoslovakia was the Masaryk School in the district of Slovany in the years 1921-1923. The project of a grand three-storey building dominating the space of Jiráskovo Square together with the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary was designed in 1919 by employee of Pilsen’s Building Office Hanuš Zápal. Zápal had long-term experience with this type of construction project. At that time the architect had already gained experience from designing the building of the Business Academy (C1–1530) and a study of the council schools in the Karlov neighbourhood (the so-called Habrman schools).

The first attempts at constructing a new building for a girls’ and boys’ school date back to the period before WWI. There were only several private apartment buildings that served for teaching purposes in Pilsen’s growing Prague (now East) Suburb at that time, all of them “with absolutely unsatisfactory sanitary facilities – insufficient size of classrooms, low floor-to-ceiling height of all rooms, poor lighting, no ventilation equipment, insufficient, faulty heating that ruined the air in the rooms, insanitary and unsuitable sewerage, unsatisfactory urinals and water closets, etc.”. This temporary arrangement, which existed all over the city in the first years of the existence of the Czechoslovak state, was intolerable even for that time.

Therefore, Hanuš Zápal designed three versions of a school building design in 1914 and 1915. In response to the council’s demand for economising and knowledge from contemporary realisations of school buildings abroad, he gradually simplified and rationalised the original and very generous version with Baroque inspired and Classicising morphology. However, due to the war, the town did not commence implementation of the project, but preparations for the construction of the school were renewed immediately after the war ended. At that time, student of Kotěra and a native of Koterov near Pilsen architect František Krásný presented his design as well. Still, the city chose to entrust “their own” architect with the project and left it in the hands of Hanuš Zápal.

The architect continued on with the second version of the design from February 1915. The morphology of the building was freed of some of the “historicising” elements, while the U-shaped ground plan and basic arrangement of the mass inspired by Baroque buildings were preserved. The symmetrically organised main front facing Jiráskovo Square was dominated by a central avant-corps with bossage on the ground floor and a row of pointed pilasters crowned with a triangle gable. The whole site was covered by a high hip roof.

Professional contemporary press, which amply discussed modern school buildings, primarily called for school buildings to be properly located, i.e. generally in highly-visible places so that citizens would tend to keep them neat and improve them. Emphasis was also placed on a balanced solution for the front that would be free of ornaments or over-articulation, which would otherwise disturb the outside appearance of the building. Therefore Zápal had the building taken back from the street line to create a space in front of it providing sufficient light to its interior. Moreover, he wanted to enhance the impressiveness of the clearly arranged front that bore the name of the institution. On the facade, rendered in a combination of ochre and brown, two portals with sculpture decoration by Otokar Walter line two separate entrances of both originally independent schools – the girls’ council school (left) and the boys’ council school (right).

The architect based the solution of the building’s layout on the older design as well. He situated a gymnasium and school management offices in the central section with the avant-corps while concentrating classrooms, always grouped around the so called halls – light open spaces joined to a staircase – in both side wings. Zápal took a truly modern approach to the interior – he had it furnished with built-in cabinets and, in the kindergarten areas, play furniture designed by pre-school education reformist Anna Süssová (1851-1941). This included a puppet theatre, a merchant’s shop, and a small kitchen. For the headmasters’ offices and staff rooms, he used atypical furniture reflecting National Style forms.

The foundation stone of Masaryk School was laid in the presence of Mayor Luděk Pik as well as President Tomáš G. Masaryk himself in 1918, although construction did not start until 1921. Two years later the building’s grand opening took place. After 1948, it retained its original purpose, not the name, though, bearing the name of the writer Alois Jirásek for several decades. Nowadays it is called after the first Czechoslovak president again, still serving its original function. It has been listed as immovable cultural heritage since 2003.

AŠ – PK

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