Löw-Beer Villa

The Löw-Beer Villa is one of the most significant residences in the new villa district that developed on the slopes of Černá Pole from the 1860s.

The property at Drobného 22 originally consisted in the 19th century of two building plots with garden houses, as well as two additional parcels with a vineyard and a garden. In 1903, the site was purchased by the industrialist Moriz Fuhrmann, who had a family villa built here. According to the municipal gazette for the land capital Brno, the single-storey villa contained four apartments with a total of 14 rooms and 7 cabinets, 3 kitchens, 2 bathrooms, and 6 toilets. The street and garden façades are decorated with Art Nouveau vegetal stucco ornamentation and rusticated lower sections. A similar decorative approach is used in the interiors, including joinery elements. Floral Art Nouveau motifs also appear on ceramic flooring and the cast-iron staircase railing.

The project was designed by the Viennese architect Alexander Neumann. After Fuhrmann’s death, his heirs sold the villa in August 1913 to the textile entrepreneur Alfred Löw-Beer. In the 1930s, the new owner commissioned partial architectural alterations, particularly in the central staircase hall, designed by the Viennese architect Rudolf Baumfeld.

In 1940, the villa was confiscated by the German authorities for use by the Gestapo. After 1946, it was placed under national administration and briefly housed an American institute offering film screenings, lectures on travel in the United States, and Independence Day celebrations. In 1954, the villa became property of the Czechoslovak state and was converted into a branch of the Masaryk Student Residence Hall, a function it retained continuously until 2012.

Today, the Löw-Beer Villa is owned by the South Moravian Region and managed by the Brno Museum, a contributory organisation. A permanent exhibition titled “The World of Brno’s Bourgeoisie between Löw-Beer and Tugendhat” opened in 2016, later expanded with a tour of the villa’s technical facilities. Since April 2023, a new permanent exhibition titled “Jews in Moravia. The Villa and Its Inhabitants” has been on display.

The villa is surrounded by a garden that once extended all the way to Černopolní Street. Alfred Löw-Beer donated the upper part of the plot to his daughter Greta in 1929, who together with her husband built a family house there—the famous Villa Tugendhat. In 2020, the two gardens were reconnected via a gate, and since 2023 they have been freely accessible. The garden experience is complemented by the freely accessible Celnice gallery with temporary exhibitions, the Café Löw-Beer, and a small playground.

During the Open House Brno festival in 2022, the villa hosted a torchlight tour, allowing visitors to explore the interiors after dark. A fictional “real estate agent” tour also offered a playful perspective on how it might feel to live in this historic family villa. A virtual tour included access to the technical facilities, also designed for families with children.