Within the framework of the two-year economic plan (1947-1948), whose aim was to restore the war-ravaged economy and increase industrial production in Czechoslovakia, an auction hall with a cowshed and summer exhibition yard for cattle was constructed in the northeast area of the Litomyšl “industrial zone” near the railway station. The investor held discussions with the author of the town development plans Ladislav Machoň in order to select a building plot which would fulfil hygiene standards and be in the vicinity of the railway station.
The design project for the large premises was carried out by Jan Lustyk and František Sucharda in 1947. The auction hall itself, situated towards the access road, dominates the complex and is the last building in Litomyšl featuring remnants of the Functionalist style. The designers came up with a low-cost building featuring a pitched roof and walls resting on a stone plinth. The concept is of a three-nave basilica with a raised central section lit up through a low strip of windows and containing multi-tiered auditoriums in the side aisles. The interior, with dynamic trapezoidal-shaped columns elevating the flat ceiling, is clad entirely in wood and well lit thanks to the aforementioned “Functionalist” strip of windows which are also a feature on the ground floor.
Along with the main hall, the building also contained offices for the director and veterinary surgeon, a hostel for staff and, in the basement, hygiene facilities and garages. A winter mustering yard with a cowshed and a summer exhibition yard were connected to the building at the rear of the premises.
The opening of the hall, said to be “the first of its kind in the whole of Bohemia and Moravia”, in March 1948, was a grand occasion for the whole region. The Minister of education, the controversial native and Honorary Citizen of Litomyšl Zdeněk Nejedlý, participated in the event.
