Otto Rothmayer helped Plečnik to transform Prague Castle

Prague - The most significant work of architect Otto Rothmayer, who died on September 24, 1966, at the age of 74, was the modifications of Prague Castle, in which he participated as the closest collaborator of Josip Plečnik between the wars. It was Rothmayer who, as Plečnik's assistant, brought to life the designs that Plečnik created in Ljubljana. Later, he also designed his own modifications to the presidential residence, where he worked until the mid-1950s, and after the war, he taught at the College of Applied Arts. In 1928 and 1929, he also built his own villa in the Prague district of Střešovice, which is now transformed into a museum exhibition.

Rothmayer's father had a carpentry business in Prague, and his only son, born in 1892, originally apprenticed in this craft before enrolling at UMPRUM in 1912. There, he studied under Josip Plečnik, and when his teacher took on the task of remodeling Prague Castle for T. G. Masaryk in 1920, the then twenty-eight-year-old Rothmayer became the architect's assistant. However, after a few months, Plečnik received an offer to teach in his native Ljubljana, and thus he continued the reconstruction from a distance, with main responsibility remaining on his assistant. He oversaw the production of models for all details created according to Plečnik's drawings, monitoring the execution of the work.

And when Plečnik, who came to Prague in the summer to check his designs, finished at Prague Castle, Rothmayer remained. In the 1930s, he designed some modifications himself, with some of his most significant works including the reconstruction of the south wing in the first courtyard into an apartment for state visits and alterations to the Theresian wing. In the western wing, at the turn of the 40s and 50s, one of the monumental halls was created, now called Rothmayer’s. However, after February 1948, the architect's work at Prague Castle was coming to an end; for political reasons, he also left his teaching position at UMPRUM and retired.

In the last ten years of his life, the architect, who also contributed to the design of the interior of the Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord at Jiří z Poděbrady Square, dedicated himself to smaller commissions. He also created exhibitions for the Museum of Applied Arts or a permanent exhibition at the Glass and Jewelry Museum in Jablonec nad Nisou. He continued to enhance his villa, especially its garden, which was captured by Rothmayer's friend, photographer Josef Sudek, in his cycle "A Walk through the Enchanted Garden." The house next to the Prague Military Hospital remained in the family until 2007, when it was purchased by the capital city, which transformed the villa into a unique architectural exhibition.