The parish building and deanery of St James the Greater

The parish building and deanery of St James the Greater is a highly valuable example of Romantic German Neo-Gothic architecture from 1900–1901.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a new urban axis was created by opening a connection from Velké náměstí towards the park Na Kiosku – today from Náměstí Svobody to Moravské náměstí – in order to provide a visual axis towards the German House, built in 1891. At that time, the planned view was obstructed by the old parish house of St James dating from 1710, together with its garden, which interrupted and closed off Kostelní Street (today Rašínova Street).

The old parish house was demolished in 1899, when a design competition for a new building was announced. The winning design was submitted by architect Germano Wanderleye. The building is still notable for its Neo-Gothic pinnacles and detailing, which echo the motifs of the opposite church. The result is a richly articulated and decorative structure, representing a formally pure example of historicist architecture rooted in the Romantic tradition of German Neo-Gothic style.

The building is a corner, three-storey structure with an open courtyard, consisting of two L-shaped wings meeting in a rounded main façade. The internal layout is divided into three sections: the first is residential, the second contains the entrance and staircase, and the third is residential with commercial space on the ground floor. The south-eastern façade (first wing in Jakubská Street) is articulated into six bays; the fifth and sixth bays form a slightly projecting risalit with a bay window. The façade is smooth, with rusticated corners on the risalit. A raised stone plinth is punctuated at ground level by six closed basement vents with grilles, above which are six windows with segmental arches and implied keystones.

The windows are timber-framed, two-leaf casements with single-leaf fanlights, set in deep reveals and resting on window ledges. Their surrounds are framed by moulded arches with recessed grooves, while the parapet panels are decorated with dentil ornament.