Horní No. 153
Location:
Horni No. 153, former Jesuit theatre
Description of the Building:
This massive, oblong, two-story, corner building was built on the
southern slope of Horni Street, that overlooks the Vltava
River. Bossage stone work can be seen at the corners of the
building and the entire level of the first floor. The main facade
is Classical, from the third quarter of the 18th century and at the
first and second floors are divided up by cornices. On the upper
part of the facade there is an emblem of the guild of butchers--two
intersecting axes above the Rosemberg five-petalled rose. The
building is covered by a high pitched roof. The front entrance to
the interior of the building is marked by a molded, pointed arched
portal. In the ground floor there is a wide, central hallway with
staircase that contains barrel vaults with triangular segments.
Decorative vaults remain in both the left and right side spaces of
the two tracts of the building. A hall with flat ceilings, known as
the Jesuit hall which remains in the upper part of the building
belongs to the Hotel
Růže complex. The cellars are barrel-vaulted.
Architectural and Historical Development:
The building can be dated to the Gothic era, to the same time when
the town fortifications and the Horni gate were built. The 200
centimeter thick periphery walls and the entrance portal remain
well preserved from this period. An emblem from the butchers´ guild
is located on the facade of the building. The building was adapted
by the Jesuit´s to be used as a theatre after the year 1639. The
vaulting on the ground and first floors were also built at this
time. The upper part of the building and the facade were added in
1783-1810. Further alterations were made in 1925, when the building
was remodelled into the town theatre. The theatre part of the
building was irrevocably destroyed in the 1970s when the building
became part of the hotel.
Significant Architectural Features:
- Gothic entrance portal
- Emblem of the butchers guild on the facade
History of the House
Residents:
For many years, it was thought that the original Gothic structure
had been used as a Jewish synagogue before it was owned by the
Jesuits. This claim was not, however, based in fact and the
archives proved this incorrect. The first documented owner of the
building was butcher Jan Tancl in the beginning of the 16th
century. After his death in 1529, the building and Tancl´s butcher
business were taken over by Tancl´s son Vojtech. Tancl´s other son
Matej became a priest. Vojtech Tancl held a seat in the town
council, was rather well-educated and actually had his own small
library. He and his wife had five children. The oldest of the
children, a craftsman named Martin, took the building over when he
bought it out from his siblings after their father´s death in 1563.
Martin was married three times. His last wife, Apolena, was the
widow of the cobbler Pavel Mares of Horni Street. The three
generations of butchers that lived here are remember to today in
the emblem of the butcher´s guild that is painted on the facade of
the building. In 1590 the building was purchase by the town hall
for 450 three-scores of groschen at the request of Wilhelm von
Rosenberg and was it was dedicated to the Jesuits. Martin Tancl
moved to Horni no. 151. A shed which was used for storage, for
sorting goods and for working with silver and gold was located on
the land that presently connects this building and the Hotel Ruze,.
This shed belonged to gold metallurgist Rehor Singerspiler who
bought the shed from Martin Tancl in 1567. Before that time, this
plot of land with shed was rented by Rehor´s father Linhart. When
the Jesuit´s first got hold of the building, they bought it with
the intention of turning it into a college chapel. They abandoned
this idea in 1613 when they decided to build a theatre instead. The
theatre was the first to be equipped with wooden machinery that was
used to change the sets. It is claimed that this is the oldest
stone theatre building in all of Central Europe. The theatre was
repaired in 1639 and 1655. According to Jesuit chronicles, Jesuit
seminary classrooms were located in four of the rooms on the first
floor and in two of the rooms on the second floor. The rest of the
first floor was used as the theatre hall. Students from all over
southern Czech came here predominately to learn German. At the
beginning of the 1760s the building began to be used for the
purposes of philosophical education, but Empress Maria Theresa
eliminated this program from the curriculum in 1762. In 1760 a
large crack in the entire circumference of the wall was discovered
and a general renovation project was deemed necessary. During this
work the town fortification wall that was adjacent to the building
was shortened so that more sunlight could enter into the
classrooms. After the dissolution of the Jesuit seminary in 1773,
the building was supposed to be converted into an army barrack or a
hospital but these plans were not carried through because the
building was too damp to be used for either of these purposes.
Instead, the building was designated to be used as a school which
would have three classes. The school, which was large enough for an
enrollment of 360 students, was opened in 1783. Until 1787, when
the girl\'s school opened across the street in building no. 152,
this school was coeducational. Due to a decline in enrollment after
1871, part of the building was used as offices of the town school
system and by a local theatre school. The theatre production in
this building was somewhat stagnant in the last quarter of the 18th
century. In 1788, the town took the building over and rented it out
to various amateur actors and travelling theatre groups up until
the second half of the 19th century. But for many of these years it
was also out of use. In 1925 the building was updated to suit the
needs of the of the town theatre. In the 1960s, when the theatre
was in a state of disrepair, the building was connected to the
Hotel Ruze.
Stories And Other Interesting
Information:
Today\'s Hotel Růže is situated in the facilities of the former
Jesuit college. Wilhelm von Rosenberg had to buy several houses, so
that he could build the college in their places. None of the owners
wanted to sell for cheap, except for Pavel Dorozský, who didn\'t
care about anything. He refused his daughter\'s request to marry
with a horse-groom, as he had already found someone else, rich. He
gave her a choice: either you take the one I\'ve chosen, or you
join the convent. Poor Elsa chose death in the waves of the Vltava.
Even today, her soul has found no peace in eternity, and
occasionally she appears to people and condemns them to a difficult
fate with a look.
Present Use:
Hotel Růže
Český Krumlov