Tyršův dům

history

A history of the Tyrš House (Tyršův dům) is very long. In the Middle Ages, the Luben farmstead stood there, in the possession of which alternated several women religious orders, especially the convent of St. Anne, founded in 1330 by Elizabeth of Bohemia (Eliška Přemyslovna) where the Dominican sisters were introduced. During the Hussite era, everything was burned down and demolished and the area had completely rural character. Later the Huť Mill is mentioned and after the year 1500 in a house in these places a lawyer Viktorín Kornel of Všehrdy, whom reminds nearby Všehrdova Street, lived there. At the end of the 16th century Jan Vchynský (Kinský) of Vchynice, the Karlštejn burgrave, built a house or rather a summer house (Lusthaus), a garden house and waterworks there. The main façade was according to the then custom oriented towards the river, back to the road. The south-western part of the building was added for following owners by master builder Oldřich Avostalis. In 1623, the summer house was sold to Pavel Michna of Vacínov. He and his son tried to imitate the nearby Wallenstein Palace, and so the architects Francesco Caratti and Pietro Colombo built for them a building in style of Rome palaces of the 16th century; with 5 wings, a big decorative buttress, a fore-yard and an inner courtyard surrounded by loggias. This building, in particular in the part facing the garden, is one of the best early Baroque buildings in the Czech lands. Just as noble are its hall spaces, decorated with rich stucco, made by Domenico Gallo. The owners had been changing until 1767 when the Austrian administration bought the building for military purposes and transformed it in the armoury. At the same time a considerable devastation of the entire complex took place. Only in 1921 the Czechoslovak Sokol Society (Československá obec sokolská) bought the building for its needs. The modification of the palace was entrusted to the architect František Krásný who gradually restored it to its original state. A thorough architectural exploration was made; historical resources and older vistas were studied under the leadership of Dr. Vojtěch Birnbaum and based on them an overall general reconstruction was performed that saved the precious building from destruction. A new building was additionally built in the garden and two halls for gymnasts were established there together with a winter swimming pool and dormitories. In the former Michna’s stables there were established the Sokol House together with a restaurant In the Old Armoury. Besides the establishment of the Sokol Museum, a private picture gallery of Jiří Karásek of Lvovice was placed on the first floor of the old wing for some time. He donated it to the Czechoslovak Sokol Society in 1925. Later it became a part of the Museum of National Literature (Památník národního písemnictví). In the 30s, the Sokol also bought a one-storey building of the summer house above the Devil’s Stream (Čertovka) where in the 19th century used to be an extension stage of the then Nostic Theatre, today’s Estates Theatre. During the occupation the Kuratorium, a Nazi physical training association, and the Hitler Youth operated there. Soon after World War II the Czechoslovak Sokol Society was abolished by communists and from 1953 the building was transferred to the state administration, which opened there the Museum of the Physical Education and Sport (Muzeum tělesné výchovy a sportu) and gave most of the premises to the use of the Czechoslovak Association of Physical Education (Československý svaz tělesné výchovy). The museum exposition was cancelled on 1 April 2003. After 1989 the Czech Sokol Society acquired the entire premises in restitution. At the courtyard, there was mounted a statue of dr. Miroslav Tyrš, the Sokol movement founder, created by sculptor Ladislav Šaloun in 1926. Other parts of the premises were reconstructed as well. The complex was considerably damaged during the catastrophic flood in 2002.