Nábělek House

This Art Nouveau house was built in 1911 by Dr František Nábělek (1852 Cetechovice – 1915), a professor at the Kroměříž grammar school. He was a respected teacher, physicist and astronomer, wrote several specialist publications and produced valuable maps of the night sky. As early as 1895 he experimented with the rays that later came to be called X-rays.

In the Rotunda of the Flower Garden he demonstrated Foucault's experiment proving the rotation of the Earth; the pendulum was hung there in 1908. For many years he lectured in Kroměříž and spread awareness of new discoveries in physics.

His son Prof. Dr František Nábělek Jr. became a renowned botanist and rector of Comenius University in Bratislava; his five-part work on botanical research in the Middle East is of international importance. His brother Prof. Dr Vojtěch Nábělek was also a botanist and published works on the flora of Slovakia, Egypt, Crete, the Alps and the Kroměříž region. Another son, Dr Ludvík Nábělek, a physician in Banská Bystrica, took an active part in the Slovak National Uprising. His daughter Anna, who died young, was a pianist and music teacher.