The building, which has housed the Constitutional Court since its foundation in 1993, was built between 1875 and 1878 as the seat of the Moravian Diet (Zemská sněmovna/Landtag). It was designed in the historicist Neo-Renaissance style by the renowned Viennese architects Robert Raschka and Anton Hefft. J. Schönfeld, A. Loos Sr. and J. Tomola, the prominent artists of their time, decorated the facades and interiors.

It is one of the most remarkable buildings not only in the city of Brno but also in Moravia in general. It is significant for its history, its architecture and the institution that has been seated here for over thirty years. The interconnectedness of city and place, art and knowledge, past and present is rarely as fascinating as in this house.

On the weekend of 18 and 19 May, the public had the opportunity to visit the Constitutional Court again. This was done as part of the Open House Brno architecture festival (https://openhousebrno.cz/), through which more than a hundred buildings in Brno were open to visitors.

Due to the great interest in tours of the building, the Constitutional Court has almost tripled the number of tours this year. Almost two hundred visitors were thus able to see the Assembly Hall, which is now used for pronouncing the plenary judgments of the Constitutional Court and for holding public hearings. They also saw the Grand Council Room, which was originally used for meetings of the Provincial Executive and is now used, for example, for bilateral meetings between the Constitutional Court and its foreign counterparts. The tour also included the court rooms, where the Senates of the Constitutional Court pronounce the judgments, the Western Gallery, which is functionally separated from the Assembly Hall after its renovation, but remains spatially and visually part of it, and the carriage entrance by which the deputies entered the building originally.

The Constitutional Court regularly participates in the Open House Brno festival. It does so with the aim of allowing those interested to see the interior of an extraordinary building and in an effort to provide the general public with further information about its activities and its mission as a judicial body for the protection of constitutionality.

Pavel Dvořák
Head of External Relations and Protocol Department  

© Photo above (one to six): Constitutional Court (Jiřina Rittichová)