Plzeň-nemocnice Railway Station
1926–1927

Přeštická 1761/4 (Plzeň) Plzeň Jižní Předměstí
Public transport: Chodské náměstí (TRAM 4)
Zimní stadion (TROL 10, 13, 14)
GPS: 49.7368786N, 13.3750883E
Architect:

The establishment of a station on the Pilsen–Klatovy–Železná Ruda railway line at this location had been planned since the 1890s, particularly in connection with the completion of the nearby Military Hospital. The first unrealised design of a railway dispatch building in Historicist style, which was to replace the temporary wooden structure, was prepared by the architect Robert Burian, working for the Pilsen branch of the Directorate of State Railways, in the year 1917. After the foundation of an independent Czechoslovakia, the task was taken over by Vojtěch Krch, the author of a very successful departure hall in Česká Třebová. This project, however, did not come to fruition either. Finally, the railways began with construction according to plans by the Prague architect Miloš Fikr, whose design seemed to respect his predecessor’s project to some extent. The Pilsen builders František Jenč, František Hladeček and František Kroft received the commission in the year 1926 and went on to finish the station with the platform as early as in July 1927.

In the environment of Pilsen this railway station presents a fine specimen of linking Cubist architecture with Art Deco elements. Pyramid and semi-circular motifs pervade the exterior and the interior of the two-storey building (be it the window sills, the main entrance portal, the bevelled scuncheons and lintels of the first-floor windows, or the style details of the interior furnishings). The asymmetric street facade with decorative attic turrets above the entrance for passengers is dominated by a tower-like staircase avant-corps, markedly protruding from the front face of the building and finished with a tented roof. The risalit, whose upper section is fitted with three round clocks, conceals a separate entrance for the owners of four apartments (three two-bedroom and one one-bedroom) situated on the first floor. Here the author of the design succeeded in very efficiently separating the busy operational part of the building from the residential tract. On the contrary, the size of the building when looking from Přeštická Street is softened by mansards in both corners of the building. On the ground-floor, the architect Fikr situated a generously conceived lobby with waiting rooms, ticket offices, luggage storage and sanitary facilities, as well as necessary rooms designated for the railway staff. The western facade, symmetrically structured and oriented to the track, is accentuated by a shallow avant-corps in the middle finished by a high triangular gable with three narrow windows. In the design of the gable fracturing the hipped-roof, the author applied simple geometric stucco décor.

In the 1950s, part of the ground floor including the passenger waiting rooms was adapted to host shops. The dilapidated station building was cultural heritage-listed in the year 1995. A general reconstruction took place in early 2005. The ground floor of the object is currently used by the non-profit initiative Plzeň Zastávka (“Pilsen Stop”), which runs a community art workshop with a gallery here.
 

Investor

Directorate of State Railways

Sources

  • Archiv Odboru stavebně správního, Technický úřad Magistrátu města Plzně