František Vlach

The significant Litomyšl project designer and builder František Vlach was also a member of the Czech Legion (recipient of several awards), a Sokol member, amateur actor and singer. Through his diverse activities, he had a significant impact on the appearance of Litomyšl during the better part of the latter half of the 20th century.

Originally from a farming family, after training as an apprentice bricklayer and carpenter between 1900 and 1904, he studied at the building department of the Polytechnic School of Higher Education in Plzeň. He then worked as a building engineer with master bricklayers in Smíchov in Prague and in Humpolec. From 1906 to 1908, he was a project designer in the office of the architect Ladislav Skřivánek in Vienna, and in the Paris-based company Pohl & Kutsche.

In April 1909 he arrived in Litomyšl at the request of the builder Josef Kreml, who employed him as an independent project designer and building inspector for an array of buildings in the region. After the end of the First World War, during which he worked in Moscow on many building sites, Vlach returned to Litomyšl and, in 1920, co-founded the company of Josef Kreml, successor to the building company Vlach & Trešl which had no shortage of contracts; carrying out a vast array of different building types: from apartment blocks, a cinema and a Sokol building to sewage mains in the lower suburb of the town, a repair garage and a hospital office building. Around the mid-1920s, and with a degree in engineering, he set up his own, relatively prosperous business with 60 men working for him by 1938.

Vlach's own work, predominantly designs for family housing, featured modern designs. However, he could not seem to break free from certain restraints, being sometimes too timid. It suited the conservative tastes of Litomyšl clients who, during the inter-war years, could not identify with the latest trends in architecture and therefore, did not offer Vlach the opportunity to dally with Cubism, Purism or Functionalism. Frey Villa (No. 428, 1931-1932) near the railway station thus remains Vlach's most daring work, its purifying facade being one of the purest and most austere concepts within the context of the town at that time.

In 1939, Vlach was imprisoned for several weeks at the German castle Wartburg. He was released under the understanding that he would commence the construction of a massive “fortification” at the post office according to supplied plans. After Liberation, engineer František Vlach's construction company in Litomyšl was employing around 25 men. The company ceased to exist in March 1948 after it was put under national administration, subsequently nationalized and incorporated into the Ústí nad Orlicí branch of Československé stavební závody.
 

Between 1920 and 1925
Sewage mains in the lower suburb of the town, Litomyšl
Repair garage, Litomyšl