Vejvanovského Street is one of the most important thoroughfares in Kroměříž. It is named after Pavel Josef Vejvanovský, a Baroque composer and court trumpeter of Bishop Karel II of Liechtenstein-Castelcorn, and leads from the historic centre towards the train and bus stations. It is part of the Urban Conservation Area, and numerous cultural and architectural landmarks can be found nearby.
Column with a Statue of St John of Nepomuk
The Baroque sandstone column with a statue of the patron saint of the seal of confession, dating from 1704, is a valuable monument that originally stood in the small square of the Bělidla settlement and later near the Church of Saint Maurice. It was placed in its current location by the bridge over the Morava River in 1998 after thorough restoration. The column was funded in the early 18th century by Jan Maito, a member of an Italian family of municipal chimney sweeps.
The early Baroque obelisk comes from a set of sculptures and stonework that formed part of the original decoration of the Chateau Garden. Later, they served as boundary markers of the town’s limits. Of the original six, two remain in the Chateau Garden today, three others are located in the streets of Kroměříž, and the sixth has unfortunately not survived. All were carved between 1680 and 1691 in the Baroque style by an unknown stonemason.
First Republic Apartment Houses
A set of four comfortable apartment houses, whose owners usually occupied one of the spacious flats themselves, were the pride of the town at the end of the 1920s. Civil engineer Ferdinand Roch, who, after studying and gaining experience in Brno, had just established a design and construction office in Kroměříž, designed a continuous two-storey row of buildings with commercial premises on the ground floor for four adjacent plots. The first house in the row, featuring a massive circular bay window on the corner, was commissioned by Ignác Lorenc Jr., heir to the first foundry and engineering works in Kroměříž. The adjoining house was designed by the architect for his own family’s needs. However, during construction, his firm went bankrupt, and in 1933 he left Kroměříž. He concluded his career with great success in Melbourne, Australia.
