Architect and builder Hlávka has a memorial plaque in Vienna

Vienna - He became famous for building the Court Opera in Vienna (currently the State Opera), his handwriting is also apparent in representative public buildings and economically efficient apartment houses. Architect and builder Josef Hlávka (1831-1908) is commemorated today in the center of the Austrian capital by a memorial plaque.

A native of Přeštice in the Klatovy region, he studied at the Prague Technical School and architecture in Vienna. He rose to become a leading builder in the Habsburg monarchy, and during approximately ten years in the second half of the 19th century, his construction office built 142 buildings according to archival records. It was precisely on the facade of one of them, at the site of the opera on the Ringstrasse near the historic center of the Austrian capital, that the chairman of the board of the Josef, Marie, and Zdenka Hlávkových Foundation, Václav Pavlíček, and Vienna's mayor Michael Häupl unveiled the memorial plaque to Hlávka today.

"He was a co-creator of the Ringstrasse, and we are now celebrating its 150th anniversary. Undoubtedly, his pinnacle was the construction of the opera; it was exceptionally creative and challenging architecture, but he managed it. He turned that idea into reality. Undoubtedly, he was a significant builder of modernity," Häupl told reporters.

In one of Vienna's districts, which now attracts tourists with the buildings of the famous architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Hlávka also constructed or designed several buildings. Among them are not only the church of St. Othmar but also the house where the builder himself lived and which is now being reconstructed. Originally, the memorial plaque was to be placed there at the initiative of the Hlávka Foundation, but the new owners of the building, according to Pavlíček, did not allow it.

"Josef Hlávka was a significant Viennese architect and builder of his time. In Vienna, he primarily designed or built a large number of ecclesiastical and secular buildings, palaces and churches, functional and prosperous tenement and commercial houses," Pavlíček said during the ceremonial event.

Hlávka also participated in the project of the Vienna Academic Gymnasium, where co-founder and first president of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk studied.

Czech Minister of Culture Daniel Herman, who also attended the unveiling of the memorial plaque, mentioned, among other things, Hlávka's patronage. "The patronage of Josef Hlávka is very inspiring. I am glad that other businessmen are following in his footsteps," Herman stated.

Among the most famous objects designed and built by Hlávka is also the Prague maternity hospital U Apolináře. He significantly contributed to the establishment of the Czech Academy of Emperor Francis Joseph for sciences, literature, and the arts, as well as the National Economic Institute (he was elected the first president of both institutions). He also supported expatriate associations in Vienna. For talented but financially needy students, he had Hlávka's dormitories built in Prague, and travel scholarships for students with the best academic performance were a given.

In his last will, Hlávka bequeathed all of his wealth, amounting to seven million crowns, to the aforementioned Hlávka Foundation, the oldest foundation with uninterrupted continuity in the Czech lands.