Plzeň will offer regular tours of Loos' interiors

Plzeň - The city will offer tours of three pre-war interiors created by architect Adolf Loos in Plzeň to individuals starting in April. Visitors will be able to embark on two guided tour routes several times a day every Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. They must purchase tickets in advance at the information center, Zuzana Koubíková from the Plzeň - Tourism municipal organization told reporters today. Exceptionally, tours of Loos's interiors have already taken place in Plzeň. Last year, organized groups could order them. In two months, approximately 2,600 people visited the two city interiors, and interest remains high.
    "There are three main capitals of Loos's work - Vienna, Paris, and Plzeň. It is amazing that Plzeň has restored the interiors, and even better that it will make them accessible to the public," said Markus Kristan, curator of Loos's archive at the Albertina Gallery in Vienna. Based on Loos's designs, more than ten interiors were created in Plzeň, of which the public can see three that have undergone reconstruction. The former apartment of the Kraus couple at Bendova Street 10 and the former apartment of Dr. Vogel at Klatovská 12 belong to the city. The third, according to experts, is a gem among Loos's works, the Brummel House on Husova Street, which has been restored over the last 12 years with funding from the city and the Ministry of Culture, and will be made accessible by its owner, a relative of the original owners. The renovations were completed a few weeks ago.
    "The Brummel House is different. I believe it is the most valuable of Loos's architecture that we have in Plzeň, that it is a pearl of Loos's architecture in the European context," said city conservationist Karel Zoch. The house is comparable to Loos's Müller Villa in Prague, which was built at the same time. Because the Brummel House belonged to one family for a long time, valuable original furnishings and freestanding furniture have been preserved. In the other interiors that the city has restored, they have not survived. Copies have been made based on the originals from Brummel.
    "Adolf Loos represents a place for Plzeň on the world map of cultural heritage. He was an architectural genius of global significance, and Plzeň is a place where he realized several projects. It is one of the things Plzeň is proud of," said Martin Baxa (ODS), deputy mayor. The accessibility of the interiors to visitors is one of the key events in the European Capital of Culture program. In the future, the city would like to resolve the property relations and renovations of another building with Loos's interiors at Klatovská 19.
    The first visitor route with a basic admission fee of 240 crowns will take participants to a two-generational apartment in the Brummel House at Husova 58. The second route for 180 crowns will present the bedroom and salon with dining room in the former apartment of the Kraus couple at Bendova 10 and the salon with dining room in the former apartment of Dr. Vogel at Klatovská 12.