How different are the photographs capturing the view of the “Klodnerplatz” before reconstruction of the roads in the 1990s and in 2019?
The photo below shows a view of the “Klodnerplatz” before reconstruction of the roads in the 1990s. The gardeners named the park “Klodnerplatz” after secretary Jindřich Klodner, who started at the faculty as a gardener at the Department of Plant Physiology. Thanks to his active involvement in the communist party, he was later appointed as bursar of the faculty (1952−1955). The faculty was not always as beautiful as it is today, though the gardeners have always taken the utmost care of the complex. In the 1990s, the asphalt and cobbled roads and footpaths at the faculty were replaced with modern interlocking paving, which made road care easier and allowed snow to be cleared by machine. Unfortunately, the 1990s reconstruction did not last long as everything began to fall apart again after a few years when the service networks were reconstructed. It is not always possible to plan everything correctly in advance. Today, we finally have nice roads once again.
The park in front of the Dean’s office, in the central part of the Kotlářská faculty campus, is an important gathering place and a good site to wait if you want to meet someone. Few people know that below this park, near Building 7 (pictured in the background), is the exchange station, the original central boiler room for the entire faculty where the coke was heated. The green area of lawns and square flowerbeds actually lie on the roof of these underground rooms. The faculty is now heated from the Brno Heating Plant, and below the road where the vehicles are in the photo, there lies a hot water pipe (a steam pipeline until 2014) that leads to the exchange station from the central distribution point under the footpath on Kounicova Street. When the snow falls, it is interesting to note that the snow immediately melts in these places. In September 2019, a linden tree was planted in front of the Dean’s office on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of our faculty. The preparations started in spring, as shown in this photo.
A bird’s eye view of the whole campus, including the gardens is always interesting. Today, you can use drones with a camera in some places, while in others we still have to rely on a roof window of the surrounding buildings, from which we have to lean out dangerously with an expensive camera to achieve the desired image.
The buildings of the original home for the terminally ill of Emperor František Josef, built by the Prague architect Josef Beníšek in 1893, only served their original purpose as a home for the terminally ill until 1921.
