The Löw-Beer Villa Brno
The Löw-Beer Villa is the youngest branch of the Museum of the Brno Region. The villa was built at the start of the 20th century by the Brno textile manufacturer Moritz Fuhrmann. Between 1913 and 1939, it belonged to Alfred Löw-Beer, a Jewish industrialist, after whom it also bears its current name. Alfred Löw-Beer gifted part of the garden plot to his daughter Greta in the late 1920s, on which she and her husband built a family house between 1929 and 1930, the well-known Villa Tugendhat (a UNESCO world heritage site). After 1939, the villa was confiscated from its Jewish owners, and during the occupation of the Czech lands, it served as an office for the German secret police. After 1945, a national administration was established over the building, and it eventually became the property of the Czechoslovakian state. For the next few decades, the villa served as a Youth Home for secondary school children. After the end of its operation in 2012, the owner, the South Moravian Region, decided to thoroughly reconstruct it, open it to the public, and subsequently use it for cultural purposes. Between 2013 and 2014, the villa underwent extensive reconstruction, which was funded by the South Moravian region and the European Union, and it currently houses the permanent exposition entitled “The World of the Brno Bourgeoisie between Löw-Beer and Tugendhat”, which presents chapters from the history of the architecture and lifestyle of the bourgeois of Brno. The exhibition also focuses on the industrial past of Brno, the development of the municipal borough of Černá Pole and, last but not least, the history of the villa and its owners. A technical library is also available to visitors and researchers. The exposition is complemented by regular short-term exhibitions in the Customs House Gallery. The large garden, which has been revitalized, and where Café Löw-Beer is now located, is also open to the public. In 2020, a turnstile was put into operation, which allows access to and from the Villa Tugendhat gardens.
The villa hosts various cultural and social events throughout the year. There are professional conferences, seminars and workshops, suburban summer camps, educational programs for children and adults, specialized tours, concerts, theater performances, summer cinemas, and other activities. The villa can also be used for commercial events (seminars, wedding ceremonies, company presentations, and promotional and educational events).