Zprávy památkové péče 2016, 76(2):163-173

Pavilions transferred from nationwide exhibitions from the end of the 19th century

Šárka Koukalová

At the end of the 19th century, one of the paths in the search for the "National style" was inspiration gained from folk village architecture. In the Czech cultural environment, an interest in domestic folk architecture began to emerge relatively late, in the early 1880's, in comparison with the more developed countries of Central Europe. Nationwide exhibitions, held in Prague in the 1890's, primarily played an important role in promoting folk architecture. Many professional studies have devoted well-deserved attention to the exhibitions themselves and their significance, even in 2015 with the commemoration of the 120th anniversary of the Czechoslavic Ethnographic Exhibition.
Although the exhibition pavilions were demolished after the exhibitions and after 1900, some patriots bought parts of selected pavilions from the General Jubilee Exhibition and the Czechoslavic Ethnographic Exhibition and brought them into the countryside, especially to emerging villa sites near Prague (Černošice, Senohraby). These structures were then rebuilt into villas or village dwellings or were modified and placed in residential areas and settlements (Ondřejov, Obříství). Pavilions from the nationwide exhibitions were mostly acquired by important Czech patriots (Josef Jan Frič, Svatopluk Čech) and successful entrepreneurs (Antonín Šimek). They became a kind of fashion custom of Czech society which itself was witnessing a huge national surge in the aforementioned exhibition events. In addition to the pavilions, folk style furniture sets were being brought to the newly built villas at the residential areas near Prague, furniture for which a certain connection with the Czechoslavic Ethnographic Exhibition may be assumed. The furniture could have been created from a design for the ethnographic exhibition and which was subsequently intended for series production. All three examined furniture samples (Senohraby, Dobřichovice) evidently come from the same workshop, about which so far no information has been traced.
The intention of this article was to present newly discovered information on the preserved remains from two nationwide exhibitions in the 1890's and to highlight this remarkable phenomenon in the Central Bohemian Region. Given the lack of written and archival documents on this issue (particularly in the evaluation of furniture design), this contribution may be considered to be the beginning of further research.

Keywords: Transferred pavilions; Jubilee exhibition; Czechoslavic Ethnographic Exhibition; suburban towns of Prague; folk style furniture; Jan Vejrych

Published: June 1, 2016  Show citation