Josef Hlávka - famous architect, builder, and patron

Prague - The maternity hospital at Apolinář, the Court Opera in Vienna, the residence of the bishop in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, the Czech Academy of Sciences, Literature, and Arts - behind these institutions stood the extraordinary figure of Czech architect, builder, and patron Josef Hlávka. His timeless legacy continues to live on: through the foundation, he contributes to the development of science and art just as he did at the time of its inception during the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. On March 11, 100 years will have passed since the death of the greatest philanthropist in modern Czech history, a date that UNESCO has included among this year's world cultural anniversaries.
    Contemporary portraits depict Hlávka as a serious, bearded man with a slightly furrowed brow and kind eyes. In his professional life, he was a child of fortune, succeeding in everything he touched. From a young age, he excelled with exceptional diligence and particularly with extraordinary work commitment: contemporary sources state that in the decades following his studies in Vienna, he initiated 142 constructions. However, hardships did not escape his personal life. Due to excessive work pressure, he became paralyzed in the lower half of his body at the age of 38 and spent ten years in a wheelchair. This unhappy period was capped by the death of his first wife, Marie. Heartbroken, yet recovered, Hlávka immersed himself even more in his work and began to engage in patronage activities.
    At the age of 55, he married for the second time to pianist and singer Zdeňka Havelková. Thanks to her, the castle in Lužany, which Hlávka originally bought for his mother for 400,000 gold coins, became a hub for Czech artists. The hospitality of the generous yet thoughtful host was enjoyed by the elite of Czech artists, including Hynais, Brožík, Švabinský, Aleš, Vrchlický, Sládek, and Myslbek. Antonín Dvořák also frequently resided at the castle, where he composed a mass, known as the Lužanská, on the occasion of the consecration of a new castle chapel there.
    After completing his studies at the Prague University of Technology, the talented native (born February 15, 1831) from Přeštice in the Plzeň region went on to expand his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. For his academic achievements, Hlávka received the prestigious Roman Prize, allowing him a three-year study trip through Italy, France, Belgium, and also Germany. During this time, he absorbed current architectural trends and studied the greatest treasures of European architecture. Upon returning, he settled in the construction firm of František Šebek, where he made extra money as a mason while studying. The owner, dazzled by Hlávka's diligence and abilities, bequeathed his construction office to him, and Josef Hlávka became a construction entrepreneur.
    His first successful realization in Vienna, the construction of the Lazarist Church according to the plans of Friedrich Schmidt, brought Hlávka's office an unprecedented contract: the monumental new Court Opera in Vienna (now the State Opera), which had construction costs reaching an impressive six million gold coins for that time. The construction lasted eight years and brought Hlávka further prestigious contracts ranging from ecclesiastical and state buildings to private houses.
    In Prague, Josef Hlávka designed and built the building of the Regional Maternity Hospital, a complex of houses on Vodičkova Street. After a major flood, when part of the Charles Bridge collapsed in 1890, he advocated for its restoration to its original form from the time of Charles IV. Hlávka's most famous and extensive architectural work, which he designed and built himself, is the complex of buildings for the metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox Church in the capital of Western Bukovina, Chernivtsi. It is now the site of one of the ten most famous universities in Ukraine.
    Hlávka's diplomatic skills and his financial support are credited for the existence of, for example, its predecessor, the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences - the Czech Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for Sciences, Literature, and Arts in Prague, of which Hlávka was the first president. For talented underprivileged students, he had the Students' Dormitories for Czech universities in Prague built. A supporter of Czech science and culture, he bequeathed all his property, amounting to the equivalent of two billion crowns today, to the foundation named after him and his family: the Foundation of Josef, Marie, and Zdeňka Hlávka.