Josef Fanta: more than just the builder of Prague's Main Train Station

Prague - A famous architect - a title that in itself commands respect. However, it is desperately inadequate to encompass the scope and creation of Josef Fanta. His personality, upon closer inspection, exhibits a bit of a Cimrman-like character - during his nearly century-long life, he was simply almost everything: a builder, designer, painter, educator, writer, conservator, patron. This December 7 marks the full 150 years since his birth.
    Looking at Fanta's life evokes a slight longing and nostalgia - for the times when an individual could encompass much more than the narrow field they studied, and when life in the streets of Prague did not rush at such a frantic pace. For a time when wealthy burghers (often thanks to contributions from their own pockets) gave their capital city a new, modern face.
    Since his studies at the Czech Technical University, Fanta collaborated with the outstanding architects of his time, primarily with the builders of structures like the Rudolfinum or the National Theatre, Josef Zítek and his student Josef Schulz. Later, he helped Antonín Wiehl realize plans for his famous Wiehl House on Wenceslas Square and also participated in projects of the significant patron and architect Josef Hlávka. In collaboration with him, he completed the Hlávka Houses complex in Vodíčkova Street and designed the building of the so-called Hlávka College in Jenštejnská Street in Prague. Fanta also achieved significant success with his design and realization of the interior of the pavilion of the Czech Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the 1900 World's Fair, for which he received a gold medal.
    Fanta's early works belonged to the sphere of neo-Renaissance and historicism; only later did he rise to be one of the leading figures of the newly emerging artistic movement, Art Nouveau. It is in this spirit that Fanta's most famous works still resonate today - the monumental Prague Main Railway Station, which is referred to as the "castle station" due to its appearance, the Mound of Peace at the site of the Austerlitz battlefield, and the building of the Hlahol Singing Society on the Vltava's Masaryk Waterfront. Fanta's late realization also included today's building of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Prague Na Františku, which was created at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s.
    However, Fanta's work did not end with large buildings. In his youth, during his scholarship trip to Italy, he created a number of drawings with which he participated in the exhibition of the Fine Arts Unity; he was also the author of several publications, including the work "On the Specifics of Costume and Housing." Over the years, he designed interiors, furniture, tombstones, sacred objects, liturgical vestments, grilles, and gas lamps. Additionally, he also focused on the protection and reconstruction of historical monuments, such as the dean's church in Klatovy, St. Wenceslas Church at Zderaz, or the ancient brewery house "U Vejvodů" in Prague. A number of other unfortunately never-realized designs were found in his estate.
    It is certainly worth noting that together with the writer Gabriela Preissová, he established the fame of the village of Jevany, still a popular weekend retreat for the Prague high society. Here, before World War I, Fanta's daughter Marie, famous during the First Republic as Ma-Fa - a journalist and translator of unordinary wit and intelligence, often met with her great love, Jan Masaryk.
    Josef Fanta was born on December 7, 1856, in Sudoměřice near Tábor. From 1909 to 1922, he served as a professor at the Czech Technical University; after the founding of Czechoslovakia in 1918, he was elected a member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts. During his lifetime, he managed to educate several generations of Czech architects. Among the renowned Fanta families were prominent figures of Czech public life, alongside famous builders, such as writers Julius Zeyer and Jakub Arbes or painter Zdenka Braunová. Josef Fanta died on June 20, 1954, in Prague.