Hus Congregation House in Vinohrady

Consecration ceremony on 1 October 1933.

The Hus Congregation is located in Prague 10, on the border between Vršovice and Vinohrady. Architect Pavel Janák’s project was designed for the new Czechoslovak Hussite Church, founded in 1920, which needed space for its congregation. The complex contains an prayer room, a tower with a belfry and a residential house. At the end of the Second World War, a radio studio was set up in the church, broadcasting information on the Prague Uprising. The building was inscribed on the list of cultural heritage of the Czech Republic in 1964. The complex was refurbished in 1999–2006, based on a design of Pavla Melková and Miroslav Cikán. The refurbishment was completed in 2011, when three bells were installed in the belfry, according to Janák’s original plan. Apart from services, the church is occasionally used for concerts, exhibitions, lectures and charity events.

This modern sacred building has a reinforced concrete construction, its tower measures 34.5 metres in height and has a copper Hussite chalice at its top. The tower consists of four pillars, with not filling between them, and spiral stairs in the middle, leading half-way to the tower’s top. The prayer room’s design is untraditional: it is located transversely and it has ceiling lighting. The residential part has five storeys and a flat roof, as well as a smooth façade. The building’ interior design was created by sculptors Jan Znoj (sculpture of Christ, reliefs), František Bílek (statuette of Jan Blahoslav), Jaroslav Horejc and František Jakub (both designed the decorations of the columbarium). The columbarium (a space for depositing urns with the ashes of the deceased) was expanded in 1947 by adding the second storey. A terrace was built on its roof, directly connected with the prayer room’s entrance hall.