About the site
Up until the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, a picturesque block of two-storey historic houses stood beside the Opava Schmetterhaus (now known as Hláska), forming a dominant feature of the central part of Horní náměstí (Upper Square). With their Baroque and historicist façades, these buildings remained in place until the early 1930s. Since the original Schmetterhaus had been rebuilt between 1902 and 1904 on a much grander scale, it was only a matter of time before the surrounding block would also undergo redevelopment.
The transformation began in the 1930s with the demolition of the corner house. The design sought to embrace modern architectural trends while maintaining the historical urban layout. In 1931, industrialist Tomáš Baťa reportedly expressed interest in the site, but it was Alexander Niedermeyer, the tenant of the city café, who ultimately acquired the corner plot. His aim was to build a structure that would match the scale of the new Schmetterhaus. This required adjusting the building line so that the new construction would project into the square and align seamlessly with its neighbour. Niedermeyer envisioned a mixed-use building that would include a modern café, office space, and residential units for both tenants and staff.
The design was entrusted to Otto Reichner, a young but already prominent architect best known at the time for his work on the municipal swimming pool complex. Reichner conceived the building as a cubic composition consisting of a base, a central mass, and a residential floor at the top. To visually distinguish it from the adjacent Schmetterhaus while still respecting its presence, he introduced a narrow transitional element between the two buildings. The ground floor was designed as a protruding base with a frame construction and large rectangular shop windows shaded by textile awnings. Above this base, three modestly articulated storeys were topped with a flat roof. Each floor featured a different rhythm and scale of window openings. A continuous stringcourse visually separated the first and second floors, while decorative panels between the third-floor windows added visual interest. The topmost part of the symmetrical eastern façade was crowned with a balcony flanked by circular windows. The shorter northern side of the building faced the inner courtyard that once sat between the historic block and Hláska.
The building demonstrates Reichner’s ability to balance the principles of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) with the romanticizing decorative and traditional motifs still popular at the time. In some details, the influence of Viennese architects Josef Frank and Oskar Strnad is evident – particularly in the repeated window elements and the symmetrical design of the façade featuring the balcony and round windows. This was the first completed project in the gradual redevelopment of the historic block. It was soon followed by Harald Bauer’s TEBA neighbouring building, commissioned by Frieda Teitelbaumová.
MSt
