The Faculty of Law was to be the foundation of the vast complex of Masaryk University

Prague - The Faculty of Law is one of the four founding faculties of Masaryk University in Brno. After Charles University in Prague, the second Czech university was established only in 1919. In addition to law, it also had faculties of medicine, natural sciences, and philosophy. Teaching took place in temporary premises near the city center, but the school was to acquire a new academic complex with its own square by 1930. However, due to the economic crisis, this construction was abandoned, and only the building of the Faculty of Law was completed, with its cornerstone ceremoniously laid in the presence of President Masaryk on June 9, 1928.

The Faculty of Law, which began teaching in the academic year 1919/20, had its provisional headquarters in a building on Antonínská Street (now the rectorate of the Brno University of Technology). A new university campus was planned to be built on the hillside of Kraví hora between Veveří and Žabovřesky, but only the building of the Faculty of Law was constructed. The monumental Neoclassical building designed by architect Alois Dryák was opened in 1932. It stands out not only with its vertically segmented façade clad in travertine and red bricks, but also with the interior decoration, dominated by the painting by Antonín Procházka of Prometheus bringing fire to humanity in the auditorium, and the colorful glass ceiling designed by František Kysela. In the building, besides the faculty, the rectorate of the university was also located, but only for a short time. After the occupation and closure of higher education institutions, the building became the seat of the Moravian regional headquarters of the Gestapo.

After the war, the building was taken over by the Red Army, but later the Faculty of Law returned here. After the communist coup, the faculty’s professors were harshly impacted by purges, and eventually, in 1950, the faculty was abolished. The building began to serve the Military Academy. The Faculty of Law returned to Brno in 1969, but not to the original building, instead moving into the premises of the former Cyrilometodějská savings bank at Zelný trh (now the Grandezza hotel). The original building, which has been a cultural heritage site since 1958, returned to the faculty only after the fall of the communist regime.