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Klar Institute for the Blind (Klarův ústav slepců)
Klárov 3 Praha 1 - Malá Strana http://www.praguewelcome.cz/srv/www/en/objects/detail.x?id=46186About
Klar‘s Institute for the Blind | The square behind the Mánes Bridge was named Klárov in 1922, to honour a university professor and a linguist Alois Klar, who dealt with the problems of the blind from the beginning of the 19th century. As early as in 1807, he participated in founding an institute for „children who are blind and ill in their eyes“ at Hradčany. As these children had no further provisions or jobs when they left for their further life, he founded his institute for the blind at Kampa in 1832 as a „care and employment providing institute for the adult blind“. He also established a foundation for the institute, and he found a protector, Count Chotek, as well as rich benefactors. However, he died very soon. After his death, his praiseworthy work was taken on by his son Pavel Alois Klar, with the help of his mother and his wife, Countess Vratislavová of Mitrovice.In the years 1836 - 44, Pavel Alois Klar had a new building constructed for his institute in today’s Klárov, in place that was called Pod Bruskou (the stream named Bruska or Brusnice). It is located nearby the underground station Malostranská and the former riding hall of the Valdštejn Palace. The place was possibly also chosen because it was believed that the water from the Brusnice Stream, which back then was not conducted to the underground and ran in its natural basin, was healing. The land for the construction was donated by Emperor Ferdinand; the project was elaborated by architect Vincenc Kulhánek. The institute’s Chapel of St. Raphael was designed by Josef Ondřej Kranner, future builder of the St. Vitus Cathedral. The foundation stone to the institute was laid by the Arch Prince František Karel. An extensive building was built for 300 blind, with a quadrangular tower with a clock and a bell above the central part. In the frontispiece above the front, there is a relief by Josef Max, depicting the Tobias’ son from the Bible as he applies ointment from Archangel Raphael onto his father’s eyes, thus returning his sight. The original was badly damaged, and so it was replaced by a copy made by sculptor František Häckel. The original sculpture is made of terracotta or kiln brick, and so the copy used an imitation thereof. A similar motif of Tobias with his father was also on the institute’s seal. Emanuel Max, a brother of the sculptor Josef Max, made a statue of Archangel Raphael for the institute, and a bust of its founder, Professor Alois Klar. When the builder of the Klar’s Institute Pavel Alois Klar himself lost sight at the end of his life, he passed the humanity relay and patronage onto his son Rudolf Maria Klar.He added one more wing to the building, where he provided the boarders with vocational training and reasonable employment, besides the already provided education. He established a basket-making school here, and the works of the boarders were on display here, and also sold. When Rudolf Maria Klar died, it was the end of the noble-minded family of Klar, which gave a firm foundation to the care for the blind. During the World War I, the institute helped the war blind, and later on, the boarder could also learn other crafts here, such as piano tuning, typing, massaging and music.After the World War II, the institute for the blind was relocated.
