Heritage conservators will open the Stiassny villa in Brno for two days

Brno - Architecture lovers will be able to visit the famous functionalist Stiassny villa in Brno-Pisárky next Friday and Saturday. It was recently taken over from the state by the National Heritage Institute. When the building, which once also served as a government villa, was opened to the public for a week, it attracted extraordinary interest. 10,000 people visited it. It will now be accessible as part of the European Heritage Days, said Bohdana Fabiánová from the institute to ČTK.
    According to experts, the extraordinary interest in the villa is due to the fact that public access has been forbidden. For next week, the heritage officials are preparing not only guided tours of the building but also lectures on the building's alterations and its rare furnishings.
    "We do not plan to make the villa permanently accessible, but the public will have the chance to visit it several times a year. Those interested in a visit who will not have time next week will have a chance to see it soon," she noted.
    The building was created during the first republic according to the design of architect Arnošt Wiesner. It was commissioned by textile industrialist Alfréd Stiassny. The property is set in a large park. Inside it is classical, but 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 in it. The state now had no use for the building, so it handed it over to the heritage officials. The villa will serve to hold exhibitions, for representative purposes, and a center for the documentation of 20th-century monuments will also be established there.