History of the house in Český Krumlov
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The house number 271 belongs among the oldest buildings in Plešivec. Its probable medieval past relates to the evolution of Kajov suburb documented as early as in the middle of the 15th century. The house was in existence most likely before 1569, and the very first known owner of the realty was Linhart Schulda (1569). According to the price of 70-80 three-scores of Meissen groschens the property was a plain little house, certainly a ground floor building.
In Plešivec (the New suburb below Flerperk) of that time there were already about 37 realties with character of farmstead or barn owned by townsmen settled mainly in the inner town. Although in Upper Plešivec residential buildings could predominate from the very beginning. This is possibly the case of our house as well. Historical spatial arrangement of this realty signifies that essential change of the building had to happen in the late Renaissance period as the enlargement of the building with the central hall shows. Ground plan anomalies, however, also illustrate the existence of older, possibly medieval constructions at the same time. Gateway into the yard with granges evidently led past the southern side of the residential part even then. The building was still a ground floor house and its reconstruction is documented by the extreme increase in the price of the realty in years 1596 – 1644 (from 80 three-scores to 300 three-scores). Possible author and investor of the late renaissance reconstruction is Simon Anders, mentioned since 1619 to 1644 as a resident of the. house. In 40´s of the 17th century the garden is also mentioned as an accessory of the house. Interesting fact about the house is the inhabitation mostly by stove-fitter masters for centuries. The first stove-fitter living in the house, was Oswald Müller, who bought the house after Simon Anders for 300 three-scores and 50 crowns on 10th May 1644. We cannot exclude the fact that even Simon Anders was a stove-fitter as well. Location of the stove-fitting room is not known yet. Even till 90´s of the 17th century the house kept its late renaissance face. Purchase price of the house from 1688 (400 three-scores) does not have to mean evaluation of its state at least with regard to price deformations during the Thirty Years´ War. Stove-fitter Julius Letner provably executed some adaptation as the initials I.L. and the date 1692 on the door case of the sideways entrance to the ground floor hall testify.
Franz Ehrenreich Kuffart, citizen´s stove-fitter master and a court stove-fitter, became a new householder on 12th January 1729. Franz Kuffart realized baroque reconstruction of the house, which brought heightening of the northern core by one floor in the period 1729-74.
Building boom in a wider chateau grounds culminated and surely brought court stove-fitter many orders, which enabled more remarkable investment also to his own house. In 1827, cadastral map of Český Krumlov illustrates the existence of the bricked stable wing and relatively large wooden barn attached to the fruit garden, areas of the arable land, and a garden with the summer pavilion. To the realty belonged 5.5 hectares. Descendants of Franz Kuffart occupied the house until 21st April 1851, when the last member of the Kuffart family Josef died probably without any heir. The Kuffarts lived in the house for 122 years and they became the longest continually living family in the house in history.
Another busy building activity is documented by building files as late as in the end of the 19th century. Around 1890 Mr. Josef Smitka with his wife Elizabeth acquired the building. Mr. Smitka was a butcher. The couple have the only daughter Gabriela (born in 1878). According to the plan made by Franz Lederhofer from 1893, the floor above the ground floor of the southern section of the building was bricked up and this way new tenement originated, which got original house number 99, the northern part of the house received a new house number 271.
The doughter Gabriela married Max Tschunko in the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Max was a merchant with textiles and was one of the cutter Franz Tschunko´s nine children. Max and Gabriela had daughters Elizabeth, Josefina, and Marta and a son Max junior. Max Tschunko leased his summerhouse to the painter Egon Schiele. It was his significant act. Egon Schiele was excited, when he came to Krumlov for a short time in the middle of April 1911 and saw the summerhouse. He found there real artistic asylum for him and his partner. He could even work outside there. Max Tschunko himself had artistic ambitions, because he engraved medals and moulded gypsum. For this reason it was comprehensible, that the merchant and lover of art did the young Viennese artist a favour and leased him and his partner the summerhouse including joint use of the terraced garden. After max Tschunko´s dead in 1917, his wife Gabriela married for the second time and as Gabriela Jillková she became the owner of both realties number 99 and number 271. In 1932, repair shop of electric car equipment was built in the place of shed and poultry-house. One year later the roof of No. 271 was repaired and in the years 1941-42, the wall of the garden was reconstructed as well. According to the plan designed by N. Zdekauer the barn was rebuilt to a dwelling of Max and Marie Tschunko.
After 1945, building No. 271 and 99 including outbuildings and land passed to possession of state, or more precisely town of Český Krumlov. Residential parts of above-mentioned buildings were leased by the town as flats, outbuildings served for small scale production or repair service. Reconstructions are primarily focused on courtyard buildings.
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