About the site
Standing in the very heart of Opava’s historic centre, opposite the Co-Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the residential building of the Municipal Savings Bank represents, alongside the municipal outdoor swimming pool complex, the most ambitious work by architect Otto Reichner from the final phase of his career in Opava.
In the mid-1930s, the Municipal Savings Bank sought to extend its opulent historicist headquarters of the early 20th century, located on the city’s ring road, with a prestigious new residential and commercial building facing Horní náměstí (Upper Square). The planned three-storey structure, on a T-shaped plan, was intended to serve as a fitting representative of this civic financial institution. The commission went to the city’s leading architect Otto Reichner (1888–1961), who was already acclaimed for his design of the new municipal pool complex beside the city park in north-west Opava, and several villas for local entrepreneurs.
Reichner designed the new building to match the cornice height of the existing savings bank. Employing the restrained forms of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), he created a deliberate contrast to the historicist original palace, with its heavily rusticated plinth, upper sections faced in exposed brickwork, and plastic stucco ornament. By contrast, the rendered and unarticulated wall planes of the residential façade embodied an entirely different kind of urban architecture – one in which refined geometric composition and craftsmanship replaced ostentatious decoration. The façade’s order lies in its planar surfaces and the grid of openings: shopfronts, doors, and slightly rectangular double-sash windows. Distinctive elements include the three-bay entrance gateway, an enclosed balcony in the upper part of the projecting bay with its tower-like superstructure, and the barrel-vaulted attic windows above. The projecting bay with its gateway and tower storey forms a prominent accent in the urban composition of Čapkova Street and Horní náměstí (Upper Square), between the building and the co-cathedral. The gateway as the main dominant feature of this part of the building is emphasized by its tower superstructure and by a portal with sculptural decoration – both inspired by Italian rationalist architecture and contemporary fine art. The central vehicular opening is flanked by half-cylinder columns supporting allegorical figures by the Silesian sculptor Josef Obeth (1874–1961). They represent life and thrift and are inspired by official German sculpture of the time and the work of Arno Breker. The interior layout includes a spacious double-flight staircase leading to luxurious apartments with large entrance halls, fitted with finely crafted original doors and parquet flooring, all preserved to the present day.
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