The second Gartner Villa from Olomouc has been added to the list of monuments

Olomouc - The second villa from a set of five unique villas on Vienna Street in Olomouc, designed by the leading Austrian architect Jakob Gartner, has been included in the list of cultural monuments. According to experts, these villas are among the best not only in the city but also on a national scale. The list has now been expanded to include the villa of Wilhelm Briess, who was engaged in brewing, after the villa built for the successful businessman Eduard Hamburger. Vlastimil Staněk from the Olomouc branch of the National Heritage Institute informed ČTK about this.
    "The villa of Wilhelm Briess was created in 1896 in the then modern historicizing style of late Nordic Renaissance. The villa contributes to the atmosphere of the street and the overall urban character of the residential district of Olomouc's industrialists, which is located on the edge of the city parks," stated Staněk. According to experts, the façade of the house especially needs restoration under professional supervision. They believe that the designation as a monument should help the owner, for example, in obtaining financial contributions for preservation, restoration, or maintenance, or free professional assistance.
    The leading Austrian architect, Jakob Gartner (1861 to 1921), originally from Přerov and of Jewish descent, designed houses in various historic styles from Gothic through Renaissance to Rococo for the most significant industrialists in Olomouc. They were built between 1895 and 1898, and expert evaluations maintain that the villas have been preserved in almost authentic form, including the interiors. Conservationists have submitted a proposal for listing all five unique villas, but the Ministry has divided them into individual entities.
    The first of the proposed buildings to be declared a cultural monument was the villa on Vienna Street number 2, built in 1895 in the style of German Renaissance for Eduard Hamburger, a successful brewing entrepreneur and long-time chairman of the Olomouc Jewish community. According to experts, it is the most valuable and most magnificent work of all five proposed villas. A villa in Baroque style with Rococo elements for Briess's son-in-law Joseph Bermann is also waiting to be listed as a monument, as well as a villa in Neo-Gothic style for Ignác Briess and a villa built in Neo-Rococo style for Hans Passinger, whose family owned the so-called Stone Mill in Olomouc and a mill in Šternberk since 1875.