50 Digger's house

Digger's house. Kálov is the old medieval name of the area of Žilina, where the original development of ground-floor houses was built in the seventeenth century. Kálov was an old trade route to Silesia and Poland. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the original medieval buildings were replaced by Art Nouveau two-storey buildings, including the house where Ján Vykopal, a well-known photographer and traveller from Žilina, lived. The building is famous for its interesting façade, dominated by a ceramic mosaic of a female figure, reminiscent of drawings by the Czech Art Nouveau painter Alfons Mucha. Allegedly, Ján Vykopal met Alphonse Mucha in Paris and this inspired him to realise this mosaic on the façade of his house. It has not been confirmed whether Mucha himself is the author.