The story of the villa at No. 739 Trstěnická Street began in 1931 when the Budislav forests were badly damaged by a storm. In reward for managing the subsequent aftermath the forester Otakar Šotola was promoted to chief forester, but also received a large sum of money which he and his brother, a practical teacher, invested into the construction of a house in the new Fügnerova Quarter in Litomyšl.
In 1934, Otakar approached a well-known local builder, František Vlach, with a request for a design for a traditional ground-floor semi-detached house. However, local authorities put a stop to his plans, as development plans in Trstěnické Street would only allow two-storey, villa-type houses. The plans however, did not go to waste as the architect utilized the separate sections of the semi-detached house and simply “stacked” them one on top of the other. The two identical three-room flats with a generous entry hall, kitchen and living room and space for a maid differ only in having a veranda on the ground floor in place of the balconies.
Even though compared to other designs by Vlach (e.g. 02-783), the Šotolas' house is a standard “Vlacha project” with an almost square floor-plan and a hipped roof, it is remarkable for its semi-circular stairway in an apse in the northwest facade, whose generous window area and tubular handrails on the terraces and stairways lend the building a modern look.
Today, the house is well-maintained, in almost original condition and is a characteristic example of local interwar building which was modern, but restrained and traditional, far from the radical functionalist buildings with their lapidary, boxy shapes.
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