bg Karlovy Vary

Carl Pietzner House

- Tržiště 41 -
The four-story building, also known as house Heluan or Russische Krone, was reconstructed between 1893 and 1895 and houses residential and commercial premises. The construction plans for the reconstruction were drawn up by the studio of the architects and Josef Němeček. Before the devastating of 1759, a building used to stand here, which was named the Goldene Krone. In 1860, this building was restored and was then renamed to Russische Krone. In the late 1880s, the building was owned by the Austrian court photographer Carl Pietzner, who was born on April 9, 1853, in . He was already working as a photographer in 1864 in the Harnecker studio in Wriezen. His work as a copyist and retoucher took him to , , and , and later on, he worked as an operator and manager in .
Carl Pietzner around 1909
Carl Pietzner set up his first studio in Teplitz in 1877, and several branches soon followed. Around 1891, he opened a studio in Vienna, from 1893, he became a court photographer, and in 1895 he moved to Vienna. Along with Wilhelm Perlmutter, he was one of the most important fashion photographers in Vienna around 1900. From 1904, he worked with in after the two had taken over the studio of . In 1909 he became an Imperial Councillor, and in 1911, he opened a branch in Karlsbad, nowadays Karlovay Vary. He got into financial difficulties, and for these reasons, he took his own life by poisoning himself with illuminating gas in his Vienna apartment on November 25, 1927.

The building was further modified in 1926 for the new owner, Ida Söldner. The former premises was converted into a porcelain shop with a portal under the terrace at the main entrance. The plans for these modifications were drawn up by the German-Bohemian architect .
Trademark of Carl Pietzner
The attic of the Neo-Renaissance building contains four dormers, all of which are adorned with and topped with a segmental in which a decorative shell and on which an obelisk is placed. The eave of the building is supported by different-sized , all of which are adorned with foliage. The and on the fourth floor are flanked by columns and that are crowned with a Doric . On top of them, you can see adorned with floral decorations within their midst a . The larger pilasters on this same floor are adorned with a , while the ones that stretch from the second to the third floor, are crowned with a Corinthian capital. The that separates the fourth and third floors is embellished with that are adorned with even more acanthus foliage. Above the third floor windows, you can see ornamentation consisting of either a straight pediment, keystone, a decorative shell, and ornamental fishes, or these ornaments placed in a segmental pediment. Some of these windows are flanked with a , or with , while underneath these windows, you can either see an ornament adorned with volutes, or a , which contains the same as the balconet placed underneath the second floor windows. Above the second floor windows, you can see a lion head protome placed in a keystone, as well as a pointed pediment with an incorporated decorative shell, and between these pediments, you can see ornaments decorated with artistic features.
An old postcard in which the building is visible