The bishopric wants to exchange Chleborád's villa in Brno for a school building on Jánská street

Brno – The Diocese of Brno wants to exchange the Chleborád villa with the city of Brno for an empty school building on Jánská Street. The villa housed a conservatory where composer Leoš Janáček taught; his archive is currently stored there. The city needs the villa due to its efforts to establish a Janáček museum. The diocese wants to set up a church elementary school on Jánská Street, Bishop Pavel Konzbul told ČTK today.

"We have approval from the diocese. Such a large exchange also needs to be approved in Rome," Konzbul stated.

Next week, the city council of Brno is expected to discuss the exchange. "The exchange is planned at market value, with the diocese expected to pay the city approximately 53 million crowns according to expert assessments. The city council could approve the material in November, and if everything goes well, it should be registered in the cadastre by the end of December," said councilor for property Jiří Oliva (SOCDEM).

Oliva confirmed the city's interest in establishing a museum. The city has long pursued the Chleborád villa at the corner of Kounicova and Smetanova Streets due to its close connection to Janáček. In the garden of the villa stands a house where the composer lived. Among the preserved furnishings is Janáček's piano.

The Moravian Museum has long cared for the memorial in the garden house, as well as for his archive stored in the Chleborád villa, which was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register of documentary heritage in 2017.

The archive is unique in its completeness. It preserves manuscripts and period descriptions of Janáček's compositions, opera librettos, literary and academic studies, notes of speech motifs, a library, and an extensive correspondence totaling nearly 15,000 items.

In 2028, it will be 100 years since Janáček's death. If the exchange is successfully completed, Brno could have a fully-fledged museum dedicated to the world’s most performed Czech opera composer by that time.