PORTALS OF CHEB
OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF CITY CHEB
TOURIST INFOCENTRE
HISTORICAL CHEB FOUNDATION
CULTURAL CENTER SVOBODA
WEST CZECH THEATER CHEB
CITY LIBRARY IN CHEB
SIGHTS
HOUSES ON THE SQUARE AND THE PEDESTRIAN ZONE
WILHELM KÜNZEL’S HOUSE
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Wilhelm Künzel’s House
Accessible to the public only during operating hours of the businesses residing here.
Dr. Wilhelm Künzel, a trader, banker and money changer, decided to build his block of rental flats on the corner of Svobody a Májová streets in 1890. He entrusted the project to ing. Ferdinad Herglotz, whose work can be seen mostly in the villa district around Divadelní Square.[1] One of the last projects of this prominent Cheb builder does not conceal his typical handwriting. The two-floor building patterned by the French Renaissance morphology was dominated by the corner buttress tower finished by a polygonal roof. Two vaulted business rooms with storage space were located on the ground floor opening onto Svobody Street, with a third one on the bevelled corner. Five more rooms and the house entrance opened into Májová Street. The builder situated a total of nine living rooms onto the first floor, with eight more on the second. Dr. Wilhelm Künzel along with his brothers provided banking and money changing services in the house. They established a branch of the Anglo-Austrian bank in 1908–1910 here, which was taken over by the Anglo-Czechoslovak bank in 1922. The ground floor was thus adapted for the needs of the bank and there was also a sizeable vault room besides the treasury and bank’s offices. Wilhelm Künzel would not spend much time in Cheb since he was staying mostly in his hometown of Bayreuth. After Künzel’s death in 1928 his three children and his wife Johanna inherited the house. Legiobanka, a. s. Resided in the bank premises in 1946–1948. The local housing administration company (“Podnik bytového hospodářství”) and then the management of the Regional housing administration company (“Oblastní bytový podnik”) in Cheb resided there in the 1960s. A very prominent and popular Cheb bookstore, led skilfully by Miroslav Kubiska, operated here for many years.
Authors of the text:
Zbyněk Černý – Karel Halla – Hana Knetlová
[1] Zbyněk Černý, “Vila Ferdinanda Herglotze–Kamenná vila”, in: Slavné vily Karlovarského kraje (“Ferdinand Herglotz’s Villa”, in Famous Villas of the Karlovy Vary Region), Prague 2010, p. 50–53.
Literature:
Zbyněk Černý – Karel Halla – Hana Knetlová, Que procedit. Historie pěší zóny v Chebu / Geschichte der Fussgängerzone in Eger / History of the Pedestrian Zone in Cheb, Town of Cheb 2010, p. 91-93.
Owners:
1890 - Wilhelm Künzel
1932 - Wilhelm Künzel’ heirs
1946 - National administration
1949 - Town of Cheb
Design:
Ferdinand Herglotz
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