Supreme Court

Since 1993, the city of Brno has once again been the seat of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic. The Court is housed in a functionalist building originally constructed in 1932 for the General Pension Institute, designed by Emil Králík, a professor at the Brno University of Technology. This six-storey structure, built with a reinforced concrete frame, closes and unites the building rows of two adjacent streets. The main administrative block is separated from the lateral residential sections by glazed stairwells. The entrance is also fully glazed and leads into a spacious lobby clad in marble.

From the 1960s, the building served as the headquarters of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In 1986, it underwent significant alterations: an attic floor with mansard roofing was added according to a design by architect Milan Steinhauser, and a hall was inserted into the courtyard. The building has been protected as an immovable cultural monument since 1958.

Between 1994 and 1999, the newly established Faculty of Informatics of Masaryk University was also temporarily housed in the building. Despite its dignified appearance and central location, the structure was not originally intended for judicial use and lacks the spatial and technical requirements of a modern supreme court. Due to increasing capacity problems, the Court purchased an adjacent residential building on Bayerova Street and recostructed recently. 

As an alternative solution, a proposal emerged for the construction of a completely new complex that would accommodate both the Supreme Court and the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office. Eventually, in 2015, the Ministry of Justice committed funds for the demolition of the dilapidated structure on Bayerova Street and the construction of a new annex. This extension was officially opened in October 2019, offering improved facilities, though the idea of relocating the Supreme Court to a more suitable site closer to the historic city center remains under consideration for the future.

Renovations of the original Supreme Court building continue. On 13 October 2022, for example, the newly restored František Vážný Hall was officially reopened.