Zdeněk Wirth and Pelhřimov - Karel Polesný, Pavel Janák, and the Pelhřimov branch of the Club for Old Prague (1908-1914)

The young scholar of arts Zdeněk Wirth had close links with Pelhřimov. One of the key figures in the cultural life of the town was Karel Polesný (1880-1971), a grammar school teacher, a historian and a former fellow-student of Wirth at the art studies seminar. He can be used as an example to demonstrate links between the environment of a provincial town and modern tendencies in architecture and monument conservation. Important events were the creation of the first book about this small town (Wirth - Polesný, Pelhřimov, 1911), and the foundation and activities of the Pelhřimov branch of the Club for Old Prague, of which Polesný became president. With Wirth’s support Polesný brought the leading architects Pavel Janák, Otakar Novotný, and Josef Chochol to Pelhřimov. The background context of the buildings Janák designed in Pelhřimov is of interest either