The Czech architect Jan Letzel (1880-1925) became world-renowned thanks to his buildings designed in Japan. His architectural masterpiece, the Hirshima Prefecual Commercial Exhibition Hall (opened to the public in August 1915), partly survived the atomic explosion in August 1945 and thus became the famous Hiroshima Peace Memorial, commonly referred to as the A-Bomb Dome. Less well known is the history of Letzel´s stay in Egypt in 1905-1906. As a member of the khedivial architectural bureau, directed by Fabrizius Pasha, Letzel designed several buildings of which only „the villa of Abd al-Rashima“ is known by name. Letzel admired the ancient Egyptian monuments, especially the pyramids and tombs of Giza and Saqqara, as well as the well preserved limestone gallery quarries in Gebel Hof, and recorded his enthusiastic descriptions and the deep impressions they made on him in numerous letters sent to his mother. All the relevant quotations from his letters are mentioned and comment is made on them., Břetislav Vachala., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
The systematic research into and documentation of vernacular architecture, the beginnings of which could be observed no later than from the time of the preparations for the Czechoslavic Ethnographic Exhibition, developed fully at the beginning of the 1950s. The research followed older research and documentation works carried out by the Czechoslavic Ethnographic Society from its foundation in 1891, it included monographs devoted to selected locations/regions and evolved to a systematic ethnographic inventory during the first half of the 20th century. The architect Jiří Waage took part in the researches in 1953-1962.