Kende´s Villa, České Budějovice

Kende’s Villa is a first-republic family house near the historical centre of České Budějovice. It was built in 1920 by Viktor Konrad, the director of the mining company in Poříčí. In 1923 it was acquired from him by the Jewish businessman Josef Kohn, who changed his surname to Kende. Since 2023 the building has been a cultural monument. The National Heritage Institute says: “The quality of the interior decoration of the Kende Villa is comparable to the significance of the Hardtmuth Villa.”

The cultural monument Kende Villa is valuable for its preserved splendid interior and has its own story. Before World War II, it belonged to a prominent Jewish family whose members ended up in concentration camps. In the villa, the Nazis established the headquarters of the Sicherheitspolizei SD security service and subsequently the Kriminalpolizei, which set up the three detention cells still visible today in the basement of the house. Only the eldest son, the severely physically disabled composer Rudolf Kende, who lived and worked there, survived the Holocaust.

The city of České Budějovice purchased the villa in 2023 with the aim of saving the building, giving it a dignified use and opening it to the people. This was done in conjunction with the Memory of the Nation South Bohemia. The more than a century-old building in Otakarova Street is gradually being repaired.