Crematoria in Ostrava, Nymburk, Most and Plzeň

Crematoria in Interwar Czechoslovakia
History and Development of the Architectural Type
Pardubice - Attempt at the First Czech Crematorium
Crematoria in Ostrava, Nymburk, Most, and Plzeň
Brno - Attempt at a New Building Type
Disputes over the Prague Crematorium
Arnošt Wiesner – On the Construction of the Crematorium (1928)

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Cubist Crematorium in Ostrava
Although the city of Ostrava intended to build a crematorium as early as 1901, it was not realized until 1923-25, due to purely pragmatic reasons - it was necessary to address a prolonged crisis in funerary services. In 1920, the city announced a public competition, which, unlike Pardubice, German architects could also enter. The Crematorium Bulletin evaluated its results as "weak" (1). The jury recognized the proposal by Vlastislav Hofman (2) as the most economical, which was based on his previous project for the development of the fortress Vyšehrad (1915). To Hofman's detriment, this project was also marked as expensive, and Hofman, along with Mencl, were tasked with developing a new design, which was created in 1923.
After the change, the construction of the crematorium was situated at a perpendicular intersection of two main roads, which Hofman addressed with a central octagonal layout. The entrance to the anteroom was through a geometrically stylized Gothic portal, which was repeated at the niches of the side columbariums. The plastically shaped dome, topped with a cubistically designed lantern, was interrupted at the façade by a triangular gable with a window. According to Mencl, the building was meant to express "the desire for heights and to elevate the mind" (3). The hall was illuminated by colored windows, and the ceiling had, similar to Pardubice, a painting evoking the heavenly sky - silver stars on a blue background. Hofman adorned the walls of the ceremonial hall with decorative expressionist painting. The interior of the crematorium was meant to express the metaphor of the alchemical transformation of man by fire and his connection with the Universe. The theme of transformation was not foreign to Hofman - in his theoretical texts he paid great attention to Oriental and Indian architecture, and the dramatic accent corresponded to his demand for expressive intensity (4). It is a great shame that this building - one of Hofman's few realizations - was demolished in the late 1960s.

Feuerstein's Crematorium in Nymburk
The Nymburk crematorium, realized between 1922-24, is an exceptional building in the history of Czech architecture - it is one of the few realizations by architect Bedřich Feuerstein (in collaboration with Bohumil Sláma) and is also one of the first purist architectures built on our territory. It is a strictly simple building, focusing attention on elemental geometric forms. The mass of the ceremonial building elegantly transitions from a rectangular layout on the ground floor to an oval on the upper floor above the massive portico. Although the internal space is reduced to elemental shapes, they are no longer decorative but functionally justified aesthetic bodies and approach Ozenfant’s and Jeanneret's demand to use Plato's "unchanging elements" for creation. The ceremonial hall is no longer shrouded in mystical gloom like in Ostrava or Pardubice; symmetrically placed windows on all four sides allow plenty of light to flood in. V. Šlapeta was the first to mention the influence of revolutionary architecture by Bouleau and Ledoux on this building in our country, but it was primarily Enlightenment ideas that impacted the entire Devětsil avant-garde and resonated with the apotheosis of rationality and truth to which the purists adhered in order to establish a new order.

Most and Plzeň - Tradition of Classicism
The author of the Most crematorium is the city building director in Most, Anton Svitil. The project and idea of the crematorium went through several phases. The final classicist design dates back to 1923 (5). A striking detail of the building is the cornered fluted pylons - chimneys, exceeding the roof with relief decoration depicting a funeral procession of naked figures joined in one chain - "a symbol of equality and unity in death" (6). Although the construction was positively evaluated, the fact remains that Svitil adopted the entire model of the crematorium from Greifswald (1913) with only minor modifications.
The project for the new crematorium in Plzeň was commissioned by the city council in 1923 to the City Building Authority led by architect Hanuš Zápal (7) - a graduate of the Czech Technical University under Josef Schulz and Jan E. Koula. The design likely did not align with F. Mencl's vision, as it was certainly his initiative that led to Janák (8) developing a competing project. However, the city opted for the revised Zápal proposal due to lower costs. The completed building dates from 1926.
The Plzeň crematorium is located in the central part of the cemetery. The layout forms a Greek cross, and the central square mass of the ceremonial building is covered with a steep gable roof with a studio window. In shallow niches in the side walls are placed half-figures: a Slavic warrior igniting a wooden pyre with the dead and a grieving girl. The interior of the hall is vaulted with an externally unexpressed dome, whose stucco decoration has created a large flower. Zápal paid careful attention to details such as the wooden railing of the tribune, the choir lattice, etc. This conception of the interior appears plečnik-like and the building as a whole reproduces the concept of a temple, where signs of ancient culture meet with the culture of the proto-Slavs.

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1) Crematorium XIII, 1922, no. 5, p. 39.
2) Builder I, 1919-20, p. 186.
3) Crematorium XVII, 1925, no. 10-11, p.106.
4) Vlastislav Hofman, A New Principle in Architecture, Style V, 1913, p. 23.
5) Anton Svitil, The Municipal Crematorium, The Sudeten Germans Yellow Administration Bodies, 1929, p. 126 - 131.; Proposals and Plans for the Crematorium in: SOA Most, inv. no. 5101, ev. no. 864.
6) Crematorium XV, 1924, no.1, p. 3.
7) Proposals and Plans by Hanuš Zápal are in the custody of the Administration of Cemeteries and the Crematorium of the City of Plzeň.
8) Janák's project is stored in: AA NTM papers of Pavel Janák fund 85, no. 116.