About the site
The Opava merchants Max Breda and David Weinstein, who founded their firm in 1898, chose as its headquarters the rental apartment house of the Opava Brewers’ Association at what was then Franz Josef Square 11 (now náměstí Republiky / Republic Square). The house occupied a prominent position in the emerging commercial and transport hub on the edge of the historic core, where Opava began to expand towards Krnov and Olomouc. After the demolition of the Jaktař Gate in the 1830s, this location opened up a link between the old town and the suburb. From the 16th century, a brewery with a malthouse had stood here (on the site of today’s savings bank), relocated in 1824 to the former plague cemetery. The square, known as Senný trh (Hay Market Square) until 1877, only began to take shape after the demolition of the town walls and gate. In 1847, barracks were built on its north side, and in the 1860s and 1870s, the square was lined with three- and four-storey houses and several public buildings (the Municipal Savings Bank, 1898–1901; the military command headquarters, 1908–1914).
The original building was two storeys high, with a simple Classicist façade. The ground floor contained a large shop space, storage rooms, and a two-room flat, with further flats on the upper floors. The Breda & Weinstein store initially occupied only the right-hand part of the ground floor, with three display windows and an entrance through glazed double doors. At first the merchants rented the property, but in 1911 they purchased it and the following year it was remodelled to the design of Julius Lundwall: a third floor was added, interiors altered, and a three-storey annexe built in the courtyard. In 1917, David Weinstein (Max Breda had died in 1914) acquired the adjoining house no. 9/10, and was already considering a major redevelopment, which he undertook in 1925. Initially planning only a partial adaptation, for which the Ostrava builder František Grossmann prepared designs, Weinstein ultimately realized that a complete reconstruction was needed to meet the modern demands.
The first project, prepared in 1926 by the Vienna architect Hugo Gorge, proposed a complex combining the department store with the Opava Brewery administration offices. Although Weinstein rejected this design, the core concept and functional layout – retaining much of the older store (no. 11) with an extra floor added, and replacing no. 9/10 with a new building linked to it – remained largely unchanged. Opava architect Otto Reichner’s design of February 1927 followed this plan but was also rejected. By this time, Weinstein was already in discussion with Vienna architect and Krnov native Leopold Bauer, whose work he knew through his membership in the Opava Chamber of Commerce and Trades (for which Bauer designed the headquarters in 1906) and on the board of the Priessnitz Sanatorium in Gräfenberg (built to Bauer’s designs in 1908–1910).
Bauer’s 1927 design is among his most significant works. Despite the challenges of retaining part of the existing store, four storeys of the right-hand side survive today, partly with the original layout (the passageway and adjoining rooms, the original sales area in the second basement with its staircase) and details such as two stained-glass windows in the ground floor and basement shelving. To this was added a reinforced-concrete frame infilled with brickwork on the site of the demolished no. 9/10.
The new five-storey department store placed sales areas on the first two floors and in one of the two basements; the upper floors housed service facilities and a clothing factory. The centrepiece of the layout was a semicircular double-height hall with a monumental half-round staircase and gallery, roofed by a dome of reinforced-concrete ribs with glass-block infill. The hall could be entered from the square via a passageway (partly reusing one created in the 1923 adaptation) and from the corner entrance via a diagonal corridor. The mezzanine gallery was lined with wooden display cabinets for small goods. All floors were open-plan, divided only by reinforced-concrete columns. Vertical circulation was provided by a main triple-flight staircase in the centre of the building and a side staircase from Pivovarská Street; the staircase under the dome served only the first basement, ground floor, and mezzanine. The two buildings were unified by a single façade. Unlike contemporary functionalism, Bauer did not glaze the concrete frame, but “wrapped” it in a solid skin with a regular grid of rectangular windows separated by vertical mullions rising into a lunette cornice. The ground floor was articulated with large rectangular display windows, above which ran a wide frieze for the store’s name.
Construction lasted from September 1927 to December 1928, with interior work continuing into 1929–1930. Architect Otto Reichner supervised the construction, carried out by Erich Geldner’s firm, with reinforced-concrete structures supplied by Ed. Ast & Co. The main entrance grille was made by Ludwig Blucha of Opava, the stained glass by F. Lucke of Jablonec nad Nisou and J. Lötz Witwe of Klášterský Mlýn. Throughout the entire construction period, the department store remained in operation.
Bauer’s design drew inspiration from German expressionism (notably Fritz Höger’s Chilehaus in Hamburg) and the American Chicago School (Louis Sullivan). Abandoning the historicizing manner he had favoured before the First World War, Bauer adopted a simpler, more restrained style grounded in function and construction. Decoration was confined to details – the fountain and grille in the passageway, stained glass, illuminated signage – while the overall image reflected the influence of American culture as a symbol of modernity.
Between 1959 and 1964, the store was modernized and adapted for self-service retail, requiring changes to the layout. The ground-floor passageway was deepened, and the old staircase behind the arcades was replaced with a new triple-flight staircase and lift, clad in Romanian marble. Sales areas were extended to the third and fourth floors, and all interiors remodelled in the then fashionable “Brussels style”. A fifth storey was added to the rear wing. Further alterations were made in 1998, when – despite objections from heritage authorities – the department store was linked to the neighbouring brewery by a passageway on the ground floor and openings on the upper floors. After a localized fire in 2004, the building was repaired, but eventually closed in 2012. In 2024, it was purchased by the City of Opava, which plans its renovation and future reuse.
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