Plzeň lékařská: A Trail Following a Dream That Became Reality

The Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen was established in the autumn of 1945 by a decree of the President Edvard Beneš. The initiative came from two sources. On the one hand, Pilsen wanted a university, and on the other hand, there was a shortage of doctors, who were also needed in the border districts. In this context, some departments of the existing city hospital were converted into clinics. The name was also changed to State Faculty Hospital. One of the first clinics to become a faculty clinic was the gynecology and obstetrics clinic, where Doc. MUDr. Vladimír Mikoláš, previously the chief of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, became the first clinic head in 1945. The surgical clinic also became a faculty clinic, headed by Prof. MUDr. Václav David. From the autumn of 1945, the internal medicine clinic was headed by Prof. MUDr. Jiří Scheiner, the future dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Also worth mentioning is the psychiatric clinic, where the first head was Dr. Eugen Vencovský, and last but not least, the neurological clinic, where Dr. Jaromír Hrbek became head. In the following years, the number of clinics continued to grow. 

Bory Municipal Hospital: Construction of this extensive complex in the Bory district began in 1895. For its time, it represented a modern type of hospital. Pavilion hospitals were being established to more effectively prevent the spread of epidemic diseases, but also in recognition of the belief that patients recovered better in airy, green, and culturally enriched environments. Over the years, underground tunnels were built in the complex to mitigate weather-related difficulties in transporting patients.  

Shortly before the construction began, a military hospital was moved from the city center to the vicinity of the complex due to its convenient location near other military facilities. The city hospital was then built in several stages. In 1945, the hospital was converted into a teaching hospital. The clinics are now gradually being moved to a new teaching hospital in the Lochotín district, and the facilities are awaiting conversion. 

Following Alešova Street, you will arrive at the Semler Residence, whose interiors, designed by Adolf Loos, have served as a lecture hall for the Faculty of Medicine, a phantom laboratory for dentistry, and facilities of the Department of Physical Education. 

Or take Klostermannova Street to the square Náměstí Míru, where the phantom classroom of the Dental Clinic was also located for a time; today, the clinic’s facilities are now hosed in the Lochotín University Hospital. 

Prof. MUDr. Eugen Vencovský, DrSc. (* April 9, 1908, Prostějov – † January 6, 1999, Plzeň) 

Eugen Vencovský was one of the most prominent figures in 20th-century Czech psychiatry. After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University, he worked in Prague. When the Nazis closed the universities in 1939, he moved to Pilsen, where he fundamentally shaped the development of psychiatric care. 

In 1951, he became the head of the newly established Psychiatric Clinic in Pilsen, which he helped build from the ground up. In 1957, he was awarded the Doctor of Science degree (DrSc.) and received an honorary doctorate from Humboldt University in Berlin. 

He was one of the first in Czechoslovakia to promote pharmacological treatment of mental illness. His professional work included dozens of publications, many of which became essential textbooks for generations of doctors. Together with his wife Blanka Vencovská, he established a foundation to support outstanding medical students from low-income backgrounds. 

The establishment of a medical faculty in Pilsen was discussed before World War II, but the city had to wait until the euphoric atmosphere following liberation. Decree No. 135 of October 27, 1945, issued by then-President Edvard Beneš, allowed for the establishment of a branch of the Faculty of Medicine of the Charles University in Prague. Teaching began with a shortened winter semester in 1945/1946, marking the start of official higher education in Pilsen. Initially, lectures were held in the Bio Universita auditorium in the Jan Hus Civic University building, on the premises of the business academy, etc. Individual departments of the Pilsen hospital were gradually transformed into faculty clinics. In its early years, the school was headed by interim deans (MUDr. Ivo Mačela, Prof. MUDr. Jiří Scheiner, Prof. PhDr. Jaroslav Šafránek). In 1949, MUDr. Jaromír Křečan was appointed dean, followed by Prof. MUDr. Rudolf Bureš (1953–1958 and 1961–1964), Prof. MUDr. Jiří Lukeš (1958–1961), and Doc. MUDr. František Machula, CSc. (1964–1971). From the very beginning of the new faculty, there were discussions about a modern campus. In the 1950s, the city drew up several plans, most of which envisaged the location of the new campus in the northern suburbs. Despite numerous declarations and efforts, these plans never materialized, and the faculty had to wait until the second decade of the 21st century for a modern campus.  

Bio Universita: The cinema of the Jan Hus Civic University was part of a larger complex, designed by Václav Klein and constructed by builder Antonín Špalek. Built between 1938 and 1939, the complex included a four-story residential building alongside the cinema. Jan Hus Civic University was an organization that aimed to establish a university in Pilsen during interwar Czechoslovakia. Although it never succeeded in founding a university, it did offer various courses and training programs that helped people further their education. The multipurpose hall of the Bio Universita cinema could accommodate approximately 570 people. 

Between 1964 and 1966, the interior was renovated to serve as the Komorní divadlo (Studio Theatre). The last theater performance took place there in 2014. Since then, the building has remained empty, awaiting its next chapter. Nevertheless, this place is forever tied to the earliest efforts to establish a university in Pilsen. 

Prof. MUDr. Jaromír Křečan (* November 8, 1888, Maršovice – † October 25, 1981) 

Already as a student at the Prague Faculty of Medicine, Jaromír Křečan was actively involved in the Czech Dental Association and in 1913 he presented a paper at its anniversary congress. During World War I, he served as chief physician of the 28^th Regiment on the Italian front. After the war, he completed his studies and began building a career in dentistry, first as an unpaid assistant and later as head of the Department of Conservative Dentistry at the dental clinic in Prague. 

After World War II, he was entrusted with founding the Dental Clinic in Pilsen, which began operating in 1949. He became one of the first professors at the newly established Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen and served twice as its dean. Under his leadership, the clinic developed rapidly — an inpatient ward, an operating room, and specialized departments were created. Professor Křečan contributed not only to the development of education and patient care, but also to international cooperation, lecturing in a number of European cities. He died on October 25, 1981, but his name remains firmly linked to the history of Czech dentistry. 

In the early days of the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, individual departments moved from place to place. After World War II, many buildings were damaged, and the faculty operated in makeshift conditions. The buildings allocated to the faculty were often unfit for use, with repairs and adjustments made on the go. Many improvised solutions soon became long-term arrangements. Teaching and administration often had to adapt to inadequate premises. The first permanent Dean’s Office was located at today’s Husova Street, then known as Leninova Street, at number 13 (between Kardinála Berana and Skrétova Streets). In the 1990s, it moved to Husova 3, after the premises were vacated by the Škoda Works. The Dean’s Office remained here until 2022, when it was relocated to the new campus adjacent to the University Hospital in Lochotín district. 

The house at Husova 3: Until 1865, this site was farmland. In that year, construction began on a church in the Neo-Romanesque style according to the plans of architect Václav Daniel. The initiators were German Protestants in Pilsen. The church and rectory/school also included a large garden with a number of romantic features. In that very garden, the house you are standing in front of was built. The building was constructed as early as 1878 and originally consisted of two separate houses. They were used for residential purposes and featured extensive Neo-Renaissance decoration on both the facade and in the interiors.  

The structure was remodeled into its current form during the wartime year of 1942. Over the years, the building has served various functions. As early as 1892, one half was purchased by the Jewish lodge B’nai B’rith — the oldest continuously operating international Jewish organization, focused on social, humanitarian, philanthropic, and political activities. The Pilsen branch was the very first Czech chapter. In the 1930s, the lodge acquired the second half of the building and merged the two parts. However, in 1938 the lodge was forced to vacate the building, which was then taken over by the regional leadership of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP). In 1942, it gave the street facade a new cladding, fully in line with the architectural principles of the Third Reich – including a Reich eagle placed above the entrance. Immediately after the war ended, the eagle was, of course, removed. 

After World War II, the building, newly named “Lenin’s House,” housed the regional secretariat of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) in Pilsen before it moved to a building on Stalinova (later Moskevská, today Americká) Street. The Communist Party even planned, though never realized, to place a massive star with a hammer and sickle above the facade. In the 1960s, the building was used by the Škoda Works.  

Prof. MUDr. Boris Kreuzberg, CSc. (* May 29, 1950, Pilsen) 

Professor Boris Kreuzberg is one of the most prominent figures in Czech radiology. He studied medicine in Pilsen. He began his career as a radiologist in Pilsen, eventually becoming head of the Department of Imaging Methods at the University Hospital in Pilsen. From 1997 to 2003 and again from 2010 to 2018, he served as dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen. He was at the forefront of modern radiology in the Czech Republic — from fluoroscopy to CT scans, all the way to magnetic resonance imaging, which he introduced to the Pilsen clinic in 1995. In 2023, he received an honorary award from the Minister of Health for his lifelong contribution to Czech healthcare. He played a key role in the construction of the faculty’s new campus in Lochotín district, including the Biomedical Center. 

You are standing in front of a single-storey, elongated building set on a large stone platform – the last preserved part of the Baroque fortifications. The building was constructed in 1846 as a private spa. The four columns on the facade are remnants of the former spa colonnade. The building complemented the previously established municipal hospital, which was located in a nearby city bastion. These baths, established by miller František Hýra and built according to the design of architect František Filous, were intended primarily for everyday washing and hygiene. At that time, houses did not have bathrooms, and the opportunity to bathe in warm water was very welcome. The creation of this facility was partly the result of Mayor Kopecký’s tenure and perhaps also the problems that accompanied the baths in Lochotín district, where cleansing treatments were discontinued at that time. And while we are on the subject of the Lochotín baths, let’s take a closer look at their origins.  

The story began with Dr. Bernard Říha, who lived in Pilsen from 1740 to 1794. This doctor of medical sciences and philosopher was one of the most important figures in Pilsen in the 18th century. He was the one who noticed a spring above Lochotín, mostly used by farmers from nearby Bolevec. He concluded that its high iron content made it suitable for therapeutic use. Although he never managed to realize his vision, he left behind a message in which he described the spring as a hidden treasure of Pilsen and mentioned that he had planted trees around it. However, many locals misunderstood his message and instead began digging for coal and gold at the site using shovels and pickaxes. These efforts significantly damaged the area surrounding the spring. 

It was Mayor Martin Kopecký who finally took the initiative to make the spa dream a reality. Count Karel Chotek bought the land and donated it to the spa, on which the spa houses and park were then built. In 1833 and 1835, the Spa House (today’s Lochotín Pavilion) was built with baths in both wings, a central social hall, and a restaurant with guest rooms. When the spa opened, a resident physician was appointed to assist in the treatment of visitors and patients. 

Despite the promotion of the spa and the efforts of all those involved, the spa business was not profitable. One of the problems was the spring’s low yield, which led to a decision to deepen it. Unfortunately, this allowed another, non-ferrous spring to seep in, further reducing the therapeutic properties of the water. The problems of the spa grew, leading to the gradual discontinuation of various services.  

The spa building you are standing in front of ceased to serve its purpose in the 1860s, too. It was later used as a printing house, a warehouse, and even housed the first private public reading room. Subsequently, it served as a shelter for the poor, an archive, and finally, in the 1960s, the building was adapted for the needs of the municipal hospital, which stood on the site of today’s hotel. The building then served as a laundry and ironing room until the end of the 1980s, when the hospital moved. 

Better known than these private baths are the municipal baths nearby, on Denisovo návřeží (Denis Embankment). Long abandoned, they are now being considered for new uses. The municipal baths also included a swimming pool, once used by medical students for their compulsory swimming classes. 

In the 1950s, teaching at the medical faculty began to stabilize. In 1952, the Medical Faculty in Pilsen took over the building you are standing in front of. This former Higher Agricultural Institute became the seat of the Institute of Physiology and was renamed the Pavlov Institute, after the famous physiologist I. P. Pavlov. In the following years, the faculty earned a reputation as a high-quality and professional institution that nurtured a number of individuals who went on to achieve international acclaim. Among them was Prof. PhDr. Jaroslav Šafránek (1890–1957), the third dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen of Charles University, after whom the Šafránek Pavilion (another LFP building) is named. He devoted himself to experimental physics and studied the use of physics in medicine. Another well-known figure was Doc. MUDr. Jaroslav Jerie (1894–1981). The Pavlov Institute also played a role in modern history when student demonstrations for regime change took place in front of it in 1989. 

Pavlov Institute: The building was constructed in 1923–1924 and originally served the newly founded Higher Agricultural Institute. The school was built on the outskirts, far beyond the city limits of Pilsen at the time. The building was designed by the prominent Pilsen architect Hanuš Zápal. The building is set back from the street, creating space for a small park. It is dominated by two majestic trees that are older than the entire building. Hanuš Zápal decided to leave the already mature trees standing and adapted the building to them. On the far right is another wing, where apartments for the director and other school staff were located. 

Upon entering, visitors find themselves in the entrance hall, dominated by a grand staircase. At the foot of the staircase are two sculptures by Otakar Švec. Above the staircase is a triptych depicting, for example, a farmer sowing his field, a May Day celebration, and Pilsen folk costumes. The central space of the entire school was the large auditorium. The main space of the school was a large auditorium, situated above the entrance hall and recognizable from the outside by its tall windows. The artistic decoration of the auditorium is highlighted by a projection screen framed by a classicist relief with figural sculptures by Otokar Walter.. In the second half of the last century, the building underwent several partial structural modifications to allow for high-quality, modern teaching. Under the administration of the Faculty of Medicine, the Pavlov Institute was granted heritage protection. 

doc. MUDr. Jaroslav Jerie (* September 8, 1894, Dlouhá Ves u Sušice – † January 31, 1981, Plzeň)  

He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Charles University in Prague in 1919. He then practiced medicine in Havlíčkův Brod, Chotěboř, and Humpolec. In 1933, he became a district physician in Klatovy. From 1946, he worked in Pilsen, where he founded the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University Hospital in Pilsen and became its first head. From 1949 to 1952, he was the first regional hygienist and epidemiologist. He served as an associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Pilsen, where he played an active role in teaching forensic medicine, advancing the instruction of internal medicine, and shaping generations of doctors who carried with them not only professional expertise but also a model of medical ethics. In 1957, he proposed making protective helmets compulsory for motorcyclists. His name remains closely linked with the formative years of the Pilsen Faculty of Medicine, when it was being established and strengthened as an important center of medical education. 

The former Jubilee District Children’s Home was allocated to the newly established branch of the Prague Faculty of Medicine of Charles University by the then District National Committee in the summer of 1945. The faculty began to use it after the necessary adaptations in 1946. The building was renamed the Procháska Institute after the renowned 18th-century anatomist and Charles University professor Jiří Procháska.  

The building was designed in 1928 by the architects Bohumil Chvojka and Rudolf Černý. The building was intended to serve as a district children’s home. Contemporary architects criticized the design as too traditional. However, thanks to this concept, the building has a simple but noble classicist facade with a regular rhythm of large windows. The home was situated in the middle of an extensive landscaped garden with a swimming pool, featuring also a statue called The Girl by Otokar Walter. 

Since 1946, many generations of medical students have studied here. The building eventually housed six theoretical institutes. An animal facility was built behind the building, and the dining room and kitchen were converted into a dissection room and a mortuary preparation area. The facility was constantly modernized and adapted to new teaching methods. Despite numerous alterations, many original details have been preserved in the building, and the original intentions of the building’s designers have not been significantly compromised. This is one of the reasons why the Procháska Institute was declared a cultural monument in 2001. The last medical students left this building in 2022. 

In connection with the takeover of the children’s home building, the faculty was also given the use of a villa from 1927 at Lidická 4, formerly owned by wholesaler Hugo Weisl, whose family perished during the war. In the 1970s and 1980s, the faculty also obtained the neighboring villas at Lidická 6 and 8. The Institute of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine was located in the Weisl villa until 2022, when it moved to the new campus along with the others. The late 19th-century villa of Josef Krásný (Lidická 6) was shared by the Institute of Physical Education Medicine (now the Institute of Sports Medicine and Active Health) and the LFP Facilities Management. The Institute of Forensic Medicine was located at Lidická 8, a villa dating from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.  

Prof. MUDr. František Vaníček (* January 7, 1897, Letohrad – † December 6, 1993, Plzeň) 

František Vaníček was born on January 7, 1897, in Letohrad. After graduating from high school in Hradec Králové, he studied at the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague. In 1923, he received a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation and studied at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. After returning to Czechoslovakia, he worked as an assistant at Prof. Honl’s bacteriological institute and later as head of the department for the production of sera and vaccines at the National Institute of Public Health in Prague. 

After World War II, he became the founder and first head of the Institute of Hygiene at the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, where he also directed a penicillin station. His work contributed significantly to the development of serology, bacteriology, and social medicine. In 1990, he was appointed professor. He died on December 6, 1993, in Pilsen, but his professional and pedagogical legacy remains alive to this day.

At the Šafránek Pavilion, we will symbolically commemorate the changes that the Faculty of Medicine underwent during the turning point of the 1980s and 1990s. The students of the Faculty of Medicine were the first to respond among Pilsen’s universities. On November 20, they established a strike committee headed by Marcel Hájek and issued a statement outlining 12 demands, including free elections and a reassessment of the leading role of the Communist Party in society. In the days that followed, students and staff of the medical faculty played a significant role in the activities leading to the return of power to the citizens. Experienced experts subsequently took over the leadership of the faculty, and the academic senate became a democratic and free forum. It was therefore symbolic that in 1990, the medical faculty acquired the building of the former regional political school, which was renamed the Šafránek Pavilion after one of the first deans of the faculty. For the faculty as a whole, the 1990s were a period of hectic change, marked by the renewal of international contacts, open cooperation with other institutions, and the pursuit of new paths for its future development. Foreign students entered the classrooms, and numerous scientific programs were launched, gradually elevating the faculty to the ranks of the most prestigious schools in the Czech Republic. During this dynamic period, the issue of a new campus — a topic raised ever since the faculty’s establishment — resurfaced on the agenda. 

The Šafránek Pavilion was built in the 1960s on the large garden of the villa of Karel and Božena Svoboda in the northern part of the Lochotín villa district. The villa itself is an example of modern architecture and so-called emotive functionalism. Unfortunately, the Svoboda couple were forcibly evicted in 1952. The new owner carried out several less than successful alterations. In the 1970s, a large new building was constructed in the villa’s garden — the very one you are standing in front of now. It served the Regional Political School. After the Velvet Revolution, the Faculty of Medicine acquired the building for its use, and today its premises serve, among other things, as a student dormitory. One of the first dormitories of the Faculty of Medicine, however, was located on Kollárova Street, in the former Oko cinema building, which also housed a canteen for all university students in Pilsen. 

Prof. PhDr. Jaroslav Šafránek (* May 23, 1890, Pilsen – † August 22, 1957, Prague) 

Jaroslav Šafránek, a native of Pilsen, was an exceptionally talented physicist, educator, and inventor who played a key role in the development of physics in medicine and in the establishment of higher education in Pilsen. After studying physics and mathematics at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, he devoted himself to research in the fields of electrical engineering, acoustics, and later television broadcasting. In 1935, he demonstrated the first Czechoslovak television apparatus in Prague and carried out the very first public television broadcast in Czechoslovakia. 

During his career, he registered 14 patents, published dozens of scientific papers, and translated from German and French. After World War II, he returned to his native Pilsen, where he played a key role not only in founding the Faculty of Medicine (1945), where he also served as its first dean, but also the Faculty of Education (1948), and the College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (1949). He was widely respected for his wisdom, intellectual breadth, and commitment to education, not only among experts and colleagues but also among students and the general public. 

It took 77 years for the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen of the Charles University to get its own campus. As early as 1945, the first urban study was prepared, proposing a new district called Purkyňov on the site of today’s Bory housing estate. In 1948, a new master plan was created, which already included the location of the campus next to the newly planned faculty hospital in Lochotín. However, construction of the hospital did not begin until the 1980s, and the campus had to wait until the return of political freedom. For 77 years, the faculty had to cope with constant relocations between individual buildings located in different parts of the city. The new campus brings teaching, operational and administrative facilities, and extensive research under one roof.  

School buildings: The construction of an entirely new campus began in 2012 with the first building for the theoretical institutes and the Biomedical Center, which opened in 2014. Between 2019 and 2022, a new six-story building was completed to house the remaining theoretical institutes and the Dean’s Office. Built at a cost of almost CZK 2 billion, it offers state-of-the-art facilities for teaching and research, including lecture halls, seminar rooms, and laboratories. It also contains a modern simulation center where students practice emergency and intensive care procedures on simulators and mannequins. The floors are color-coded and connected by elevators, and a rooftop terrace overlooking the city has become a popular place to relax. The building also includes a canteen with an adjoining cafeteria, both operated directly by the faculty. The authors of the building are Ing. arch Anna Nesvadbová, Ing. arch. Jan Janoušek, and Ing. arch. Kateřina Mašková. The quality and significance of these buildings are confirmed by their repeated recognition in the Pilsen Region Building of the Year competition – with the main campus building, completed in 2022, even winning the national Building of the Year award. 

Biomedical Center: This advanced research facility is focused primarily on research rather than teaching. Scientists here address topics such as infectious diseases, cancer in connection with experimental surgery, the biocompatibility of materials, stem cell research, neurodegenerative diseases, and issues of reproductive medicine. The Center’s research teams collaborate on projects with institutions both in the Czech Republic and abroad. 

Prof. Jindřich Fínek, PhD, MHA (* October 3, 1957, Plzeň) 

Professor Jindřich Fínek has been dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen since 2018, now in his second term. Since 1983, he has worked at the Oncology and Radiotherapy Clinic of the University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, and has headed it since 2014. 

Professor Fínek is one of the most prominent figures in Czech oncology. His professional career spans more than four decades of clinical practice, teaching, and research in the field of cancer treatment. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, where he later obtained the title of professor in the field of oncology. He is a member of the faculty’s scientific council, head of the Complex Oncological Care Center at the University Hospital in Pilsen, and an active member of a number of professional societies in the Czech Republic and abroad. His main professional interests include personalized medicine, pharmacoeconomics, and monitoring the biological activity of cancer diseases.