About the site
At the turn of the 1830s and 1840s, the Order of the Teutonic Knights began to develop an enclave on the south-western edge of the historic centre of Opava, close to its convent building on Rybí trh (Fish Market). The first building, a convent school, was constructed in 1838–1839 on the site of the former town walls and carpenters’ yard (Beethovenova Street 179/2). After the female branch of the order was re-established in 1841, a two-storey convent with the Chapel of the Holy Cross was built opposite (Beethovenova Street 235/1). This stood next to the Heiderich Hospital, created in the former Franciscan monastery (Ostrožná Street 234/42), where the sisters of the order served. In 1883, on the site of the former Great Malthouse north-east of the convent, the order erected a two-storey hospital building for forty-five poor patients. In 1903, it was connected to the convent by a two-storey wing with a carriage entrance, and in 1914 a single-storey outpatient clinic was added.
After the First World War, the hospital could no longer meet patient needs or the requirements of modern healthcare. The order therefore commissioned the Opava construction firm Karl Werner & Gustav Purde to design the extension and modernization of the complex. The project involved adding a second floor, constructing a new block towards Popská Street, and incorporating a neighbouring rental apartment house built in 1904. All three parts were unified with a new façade: the north façade followed a traditional composition with banded rustication at ground level, an accentuated entrance risalit, string courses, and an attic storey with round windows, while the south garden façade with open metal balconies was treated in the spirit of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). The main entrance, with a massive canopy on corbels, faced Popská Street; its doors could be opened electrically from the porter’s lodge. The old entrance from Školní Street (now Matiční Street) led to the kitchen service area.
The layout placed wards and day rooms on the south side, overlooking the hospital and convent gardens, while service areas, including operating theatres, were concentrated in the north wing facing the street. Capacity increased to 130 patients, accommodated in forty rooms with one to five beds on the first and second floors, almost all with direct access to a balcony. Notable features included wardrobes and linen cupboards built into partition walls, and washbasins with hot and cold water in the rooms. The ground floor housed outpatient clinics for free treatment and examinations of eye, ear, nose, and throat diseases, a modern X-ray department for internal examinations and radiotherapy, adjacent diathermy rooms (using electric current and artificial sunlight), and two well-equipped laboratories. The kitchen and service facilities were also fitted to a high standard. On the first floor, facing the street, were operating theatres, consulting and sterilization rooms with state-of-the-art equipment, together with a delivery room and neonatal ward. The second floor contained doctors’ rooms, a pharmacy, and the hospital chapel, decorated with paintings by the Opava artist Adolf Zdrazila. The attic housed two open lounges and staff accommodation for twenty, while the basement contained therapeutic mud and carbonic baths and a modern laundry room. The result was the most modern hospital in the country, fully electrified, equipped with telephones, and heated by a combination of hot water and low- and high-pressure steam systems.
In 2010–2011, the then disused and dilapidated building was adapted by a private owner for residential use and surgeries (now MG Residence Elizabeth), to the designs of the Arches studio and architect Jiří Horák. This renovation included adding a storey with two luxury apartments with terraces.
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