Brno city councillors yesterday selected the design for the tombstone of renowned author Milan Kundera, which will take the last vacant spot in the circle of honor at Brno’s Central Cemetery. The winning design was submitted by Austrian architect Johannes Paar from the architectural office of the Mair-Paar Büro für Architektur studio.
“The selected tombstone design has a high artistic level, meets the requirements for originality and creativity and also, and I consider this to be key, respects the wishes of the Kundera couple for simplicity and moderation. It corresponds to Milan Kundera’s writing style, which is analytical, expressively reduced and non-symbolic, not ornamental,” said Brno Mayor Markéta Vaňková. “The impression of levitation is very interesting. It looks as if the tombstone has separated from the ground and is floating slightly above it. Despite the weight of the concrete from which it is to be made, it appears light.”
Forty-one applications were submitted to the open architectural competition to find a tombstone for the final resting place of Kundera and his wife Věra, and 39 of them were evaluated. According to the terms of the competition, the selected design is to be completed and installed in the Central Cemetery by 10 July 2026, the day before the anniversary of Kundera’s death. The maximum cost for the installation was set at CZK 1,250,000 (excluding VAT).
Milan Kundera’s widow, Věra Kunderová, approached the City of Brno not long after the writer’s death, asking whether he could be buried in the circle of honor at the Central Cemetery. The councillors reserved the last vacant spot in September 2023, and a few months later they also agreed to the future burial of Věra’s remains. The terms of the competition for the design of Milan Kundera’s tombstone were published on 6 February this year, with the deadline for submissions of 9 June. The evaluation meeting of the competition jury took place on 1 July.
