Jan Letzel

9 April 1880, Náchod – 26 December 1925, Prague

Jan Letzel studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, under Jan Kotěra. He was one of Kotěra’s most talented student, but he wanted to be successful abroad. He took a study trip to Dalmatia, studied old art and lived for a while in Egypt. He visited India, China, North America, and most of all Japan (1907–1920), where he returned and later ran his own architectural firm. After the First World war, he worked in Japan as a voluntary commercial attaché of the newly-founded First Republic. He was hospitalised in a psychiatric hospital and died there.

Letzel created most of his works in Japan, where he designed a number of buildings, e.g. the monasteries Sacré Coeur and Stella Matutina, the Jesuit University, the building of the central physicians' union and the museum of commerce in Osaka. He also worked on the decorations for the reception hall of the German Empire in Tokyo, but his most famous work is the pavilion designed for the commercial exhibition in Hiroshima, today known as the Atomic Dome. Its iron and concrete construction was the only one that survived the atom bomb explosion on 6 August 1945 at 8.15.

Letzel was also a talented fine artist. He worked as a painter and designer during the First World War, when he was not able to work as an architect. His projects at home include the Art Nouveau pavilion Dvorana in the Mšené-lázně municipality.