There is unexpected interest in the tours of the Stiassny villa in Brno

Brno - According to heritage experts, there is unexpected interest in visiting the Stiassny villa in Brno-Pisárky. The heritage institute made it accessible last Thursday as a functionalist gem. So far, over 5000 architecture lovers have visited the villa. Such attendance is not seen in some monuments even over the course of a whole year, said Zdeněk Musil, spokesman for the heritage institute, to ČTK today. He reminded that the villa is open only for a short time, until this Friday.
    Some visitors may even help uncover the unknown past of the building. One of them is, for example, a descendant of the governess who cared for the upbringing of Stiassny's daughter, Susan. A former butler also came to see the villa. He worked there from 1936 to 1942 and has many photographs of it.
    "We had no idea that the interest in the villa would be so great," Musil stated. He added that the building will be open for a weekend in September, in celebration of European heritage days.
    The building was created during the First Republic according to the design of the famous architect Arnošt Wiesner. The textile industrialist Alfred Stiassny had the villa built in 1927. The property is located on land where 15 houses were supposed to be constructed. It is set in a park, creating the impression that it is not located in the city, but in the woods. Inside, the building is Neoclassical, but from the outside, it is an example of functionalism.
    The state acquired the villa after World War II. During his visit to Czechoslovakia in 1972, Fidel Castro stayed there. The state currently has no use for the building, so it transferred it to heritage experts. The villa will be used for exhibitions, for the representative purposes of Brno and the South Moravian Region, and it will also become a center for the documentation of 20th-century heritage.