OGV — Comenius

At the end of the 19th century a museum association was founded in Jihlava. A number of exhibitions of contemporary painters took place in Jihlava before World War II. Despite the fact that an attempt was made to establish a municipal gallery at that time, it was not successful until after 1945.

In 1948, after repeated insistence of Jihlava's possibility and a valuable gift of Marie Kovaříková, who donated her lifetime collection of paintings (78 paintings and 1 sculpture) to the town, the Jihlava Picture Gallery was established on 24 October. It was located on the 1st floor of the house No. 14 on Masaryk Square. It was placed under the administration of the city museum.

After a three-year closure, the gallery was opened on 10 May 1953 in temporary premises in houses No. 57 and 58 on Masaryk Square. In 1960 the gallery was renamed from the Regional Gallery of Vysočina to its current name. Komenského 10, when a permanent exhibition of 20th century Czech art was set up on the first floor.

It was soon discovered that the existing premises were not sufficient and the gallery acquired another building under its management - at Masaryk Square, No. 24.

Masaryk Square House
After frequent fires, the form of the original Gothic house cannot be determined today. In the 16th century the Gothic house was rebuilt into a two-storey house with three window axes. The ground floor of the house is typical - a deep three-bay tract.
The first two-storey tract served as an entrance hall (sales and production activity, the so-called mazhaus), the second tract was probably a black kitchen and a staircase to the mezzanine. The third tract is the passage to the courtyard. The mirrored vault with sections around the perimeter is valuable, and unique in the urban environment. Unfortunately, no relics survive of the staircase from the first floor to the second floor pavilion.

House Komenského 10
This house was built by joining two neighbouring houses in 1864. It can be assumed that they had their Gothic predecessors from the 14th century. From the end of the 15th century until the beginning of the 17th century the house belonged to one of the important Jihlava families, the Geschls (left house). The house has a preserved Renaissance portal, a lower entrance hall (the so-called mazhaus), vaulted on the central pillar by four fields of ridge vaulting. From it, a staircase leads up to the upper storey hall, which forms the central part of the house (Renaissance staircase portal). The space of the hall is vaulted with an eight-part vault. On its hood there are 8 figures of angels and a star with rays shines at the top of the vault. The main viewpoint is occupied by an angel holding an open Bible with a German quotation from the Psalm of David (No. 146) about praising the Lord. According to analogies in other houses, it is thought that similar themes were mainly in Protestant spaces (singing societies). Six angels play various musical instruments (horn, trumpet, lute, triangle, flute and guitar). The small rooms upstairs were most likely a black kitchen with a pantry. Both houses were patrimonial with a shenk law. There were malt houses next to the houses, with large cellars suitable for maturing beer.
1864 - one owner - the Hellers - bought both houses and connected them.