The South Moravian Region will renovate the Löw-Beer Villa

Brno - The South Moravian Region wants to restore the Löw-Beer Villa on Drobného Street in Brno, which borders the famous Tugendhat Villa across the sloping garden. The Art Nouveau building currently houses a youth home. The region wants to use it for an exhibition about the Art Nouveau style, the textile industry in Brno, and the family of the original owners. The region will seek funding from the European Union for repairs amounting to tens of millions of crowns. The exact costs will only be determined by a detailed project. This was stated to the press today by Deputy Governor Václav Božek (ČSSD).
    "We want to use the space for presentations and exhibitions related to both the lifestyle during the Art Nouveau period and the life of the Löw-Beer family and the associated textile industry in Brno," said Božek.
    The project needs to be coordinated with the renovations of the Tugendhat Villa, which is owned by the city of Brno. The reconstruction of the only Czech modern art building listed on the UNESCO list began this year after many years of postponements. It will cost approximately 146 million crowns, with funding also provided by the European Union.
    The Löw-Beer Villa could theoretically become a new access point to the Tugendhat Villa. It is located closer to the city center on busy Drobného Street, opposite Lužánky Park. Visitors would pass through the Löw-Beer Villa and ascend through the gardens in the courtyard to the Tugendhat Villa. However, the region must agree on this with the city. "It would be good if the connection occurred; it will be a matter of further negotiations," Božek stated.
    Both buildings once formed a loosely connected whole. The parents of Greta Tugendhat lived in the Löw-Beer Villa, who provided her with the upper part of the garden with a beautiful view of Brno for the construction of a new house for her family.
    The Löw-Beer Villa was built in an Art Nouveau style by Brno textile magnate Moritz Fuhrmann between 1903 and 1904. His sons sold the house in 1913 to the factory owner Alfred Löw-Beer. The author of the project is not unequivocally known according to the book Famous Brno Villas. Some authors mention the Vienna architect Franz von Neumann. The villa was later used by the Nazi secret police, and after the war, it was managed by the state. It has housed a youth home since the 1960s.