Legiobanka / Bank of the Czechoslovak Legion (Prague) - Art Deco - Art Nouveau on Waymarking.com

Located on Na porící street is the intriguing Bank of the Czechoslovak Legion (Legiobanka) building, a stunning example of Rondo-Cubist architecture in the historic centre of Prague.

The first building of the Legiobanka was constructed at the site of a one-storey older house from the middle of the 19th century. In 1919, the bank was in a need of having the possibility for Czechoslovak legionaries in Russia and France to deposit the money coming from selling unconsumed food rations and surpluses of soldier’s wages.

Legiobanka was designed by architect Josef Gocár in at that time a new architectural style of Rondo-Cubism. This style is also known as the National style or Arch-Cubism and the term Czech Art Deco is used as well. The point of this style is that the original Cubist edges, cubes and pyramids are mellowed and rounded in arches in the spirit of Slavic tradition. The relatively narrow façade of the house is remarkable for its conspicuous mass and significantly profiled arch cornices. The house is seated rather in depth, so there is quite a wide sidewalk in front of it. The house has five floors and an attic. Both side wings, the right lengthwise and left transverse, are annexed to the front wing. The space in the courtyard is filled with a ground floor building where there is a three-nave hall of a bank vestibule. The construction work was made by F. Tronícek Company and Nekvasil Concrete Company.

Gocár invited for cooperation his friends Jan Štursa, Otto Gutfreund and František Kysela, all of them outstanding artists. Jan Štursa is the author of four sculptures of legionaries, placed on the pillar tops of the main entrance. Otto Gutfreund created a sandstone relief with a theme of the legions’ battles and comeback that is placed on the window sill on the second floor. František Kysela is the author of stained glasses in front of the trefoil vault of magnificent skylight above the bank hall as well as the author of paintings in the interior. The original paintings remained best preserved in the column hall of the waiting area on the first floor, in so called columbarium. The furniture of the bank was made according to designs by Josef Gocár. In the basement of the building there is a concert hall with an organ, later converted into a theater. There used to play D 34 Theater of E. F. Burian.