Tower Branka by Karel Votlucka - Plzen, Czech Republic - Paintings Then and Now on Waymarking.com

The Tower Branka is a side tower with a pedestrian gate. The Lititz Gate stood on the south side of the town and was used to get to Lititz and then through Klatovy and Domažlice to Bavaria. From the architectural and fortification point of view it was a very elaborate building. The gate complex consisted of three towers with passageways and a barbican. In 1711 it is referred to as a "closed" gate, after the completion of St. Anne's Monastery it began to be called the Jeptišská Gate. At this time only the middle tower of the gate was standing. The destruction of the rest of the Lititz Gate complex began with the filling in of the moats in 1803. A year later, the above-ground part of the structure was demolished.


The author of this painting is Karel Votlucka, a native of Pilsen (born on October 1, 1896, Pilsen – June 2, 1963, Pilsen), a Czech painter, graphic artist, and illustrator. Votlucka had a keen interest in architecture. Throughout his life, he created several hundred drawings of various buildings from places where he studied and subsequently lived, such as Prague, Pilsen, Domažlice, or places he visited, including Trnava, Hodonín, Olomouc, and Brno. Some of these drawings were then published in books such as "Plzenské pomnenky", "Stará Plzen ocima Karla Votlucky", "Pražská nádvorí" and "Stará Plzen."

K. Votlucka was very fond of depicting the corners of old towns - especially his native Pilsen. He painted a number of buildings that were later demolished as part of the redevelopment. In 1942, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Pilsen brewery, the brewery management commissioned a pictorial documentation of not only the brewery itself, but also important city buildings or places. In the period 1939-1942, he worked on a large-scale project documenting one of Pilsen's phenomena - Pravovarecnické houses (houses that were entitled to brew beer).


This drawing comes from the book "Stará Plzen ocima Karla Votlucky". The book is available for example directly in Pilsen in the library of the West Bohemian Museum (visit link) .

Website of painting. Exact URL of painting is required: [Web Link] Artist: Karel Votlučka Date of Your Photograph: 05/06/2023 Medium of Painting: charcoal drawings, watercolour, paper Date of Painting: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Describe your visit, including the date, with as much detail as possible, and contribute at least one photo, original, different from those already in the gallery, if possible.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.