House of the Black Madonna

The House of the Black Madonna is a cubist building in the "Old Town" area of Prague, Czech republic. It was designed by Josef Gočár. It is currently in use as a small museum of Cubism and is open to the public.

The House of the Black Madonna (U Cerne Matky Bozi), sometimes referred to as Black Mother of the Lord, was designed and built between 1911 and 1912 on the corner of Celetna Street and Ovocny trh. Josef Gocar built this house as the first example of cubist architecture in Prague and it remains probably the most celebrated. Even without historical details of the Baroque building surrounding it, the House at the Black Madonna maintains the atmosphere of the neighborhood. The house was given its name by the stone sculpture that originally adorned one of the two Baroque buildings on the same lot. After many years altered use in the interwar period and under communist rule, the house was closed in January 2002 and re-opened after extensive restoration in November 2003.

Gocar designed this house in mid-1911 at the age of 31 for the wholesale merchant Frantisek Josef Herbst. Mr. Herbst chose Gocar to build his department store in Old Town along the old coronation route because of the architect’s earlier success with a similar shop in Jaromer(sp) built in 1909-1911. Because of this prominent position within the heart of the city, Gocar’s building was subject to strict harmonization rules that demanded the department store not conflict with its historical setting. It uses the language of baroque architecture in the cubist forms which exemplifies the ‘contextualization’ of cubist architecture.

Gocar’s first plans were not well received by Lubos Jeabek who oversaw the historical-buildings authority in Bohemia. Subsequent designs incorporated more cubist features into the building; the Prague City Council eventually approved the plans on August 4th, 1911. In fact, his early modernist orientation, seen in original plans for the House at the Black Madonna, give way to the new cubist designs in the finished building. The angulated bay windows, iconic capitals between windows, and cubist railing of the balcony took their place in deigns.

The House at the Black Madonna like many of Gocar’s houses was build with a reinforced-concrete skeleton from the Chicago School. Cubist interiors had proven a challenge to architects. This very modern building style of reinforced-concrete skeletons allowed for large interior spaces without ceiling support that more complimented cubist aesthetics. Grand Café Orient, which encompassed the entire fist floor without supporting pillars, was a revolutionary feat of engineering.

In some literature, Gocar is described as a ‘decorativist’ because he was primarily concerned with creating this cubist façade instead of a cubist building. It is ironic then that his design for the Grand Café Orient is the only surviving cubist interior in the world. In reference to the façade, multiple revision in design and the harmonization rules forced some compromise on the cubist elemtns. The façade breaks with the cubist and modern traditions at the third level and incorporated elements to reconcile the cubist building with its surrounds. For example the roof is akin to Baroque double roofs. The third story also features flat windows and pilasters with Classical fluting between them.

As previously noted, the House at the Black Madonna was originally designed to house a department store. Herbst’s store occupied the ground and second floor of the building. Grand Café Orient was established was established on the first floor. Above that were apartments. The house was used this way until minor changes in 1914. In the mid 20s the café and store on the second floor were converted into bank offices. Further damage to the architectural integrity was done in 1941; functionalist architect V. Kubik refashioned the wooden fames on the ground floor windows with steel. During the communist period the building was subdivided internally into more office spaces and then designated as the state exhibition agency. In 1994, the space was created again as a center for Czech art and culture. Heavy reconstruction between 2002 and 2003 returned established the Museum of Czech Cubism. The fourth and fifth floors of the house are dedicated to a permanent exhibition of cubist art museum curated by the Czech Museum of Fine Arts. The art concentrates on Czech artists in the period from 1911 to 1919 when cubism was in its heyday as both a visual art and architecture. March 2005, the Grand Café Orient was re-opened after extensive restoration. Few original plans survived but black and white still photographs had documented décor and atmosphere of the café in 1912. Replicas of café furniture and brass chandeliers were constructed to revive the café and showcase the many forms of cubism present in the Czech republic.