70 years ago, architect Josef Gočár passed away

Josef Gočár, Ambrož's Church of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church in Hradec Králové, 1926 - 1929

Prague - 70 years ago, on September 10, 1945, one of the most distinctive Czech architects of the 20th century, Josef Gočár, passed away. Among his most famous works are the cubist buildings of the House at the Black Madonna, Legiobanka, and the Spa Pavilion in Lázně Bohdaneč. The range of Gočár's work was admirable, spanning from furniture design to urban planning.
He was born on March 13, 1880, in Semín near Přelouč and began studying at the School of Applied Arts in Prague only after completing an apprenticeship as a goldsmith. After performing folkloristic works, as a student of Professor Jan Kotěra, he turned to European modernism and from 1911 focused on cubism, of which he was one of the founders.
In the 1920s, Gočár designed a viable regulatory plan for Hradec Králové, where a whole series of his buildings also emerged, such as Rašín Gymnasium in the shape of an open book (now J. K. Tyl Gymnasium). By then, he was already a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and was creating in the spirit of functionalism. His best constructivist work is probably the Church of St. Wenceslas in Prague-Vršovice and the ensemble of family villas in Baba. In 2000, Gočár was selected in a poll as the greatest figure of Czech architecture of the 20th century.