Unveil the Thrills of Czech Cubism at Bauer’s Villa!
Unique villa designed by architect Josef Gočár for the landowner Adolf Bauer in the small village of Libodřice in the Kolín region, was opened to the public by the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. It houses an exhibition dedicated to a unique Czech phenomenon – cubist architecture, furniture and home accessories. The exhibition of Cubist interiors is a suitable complement to the permanent exhibition Czech Cubism in the House of the Black Mother of God in Prague. Villa built in the years 1912-1914 is a unique and stylistically characteristic realization of Cubist architecture.
Local landowner Adolf Bauer was commissioned at a time when the most significant Gočár’s cubist buildings – The House of the Black Mother of God in Prague and the Spa House in Bohdanec. The villa was used as a home for the Bauer family until 1931, when Adolf Bauer died and his wife and two daughters moved to Prague. In 1940 the villa was used as a Jewish property confiscated and placed under German administration. All three women then perished in the concentration camps. In 1948 the villa was nationalized.
The preservation and reconstruction of the villa in the new millennium was taken care of by the Foundation of Czech Cubism, and in 2025 the villa is under the care of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. The interior of the villa, which was not originally furnished by the Bauer family cubist furniture, now presents an exhibition of furniture design and of applied art cubism – especially works by Vlastislav Hofman, Pavel Janák, Josef Gočár, Ladislav Machona or artefacts from the production of the cooperative Artěl.
