About the site
The articulated building of the Czech Middle School (now T. G. Masaryk Primary School) was erected on a vacant plot between the House of the Catholic Journeymen’s Association and the Provincial Finance Directorate. The site began to take on an urban form at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the farmstead of the Teutonic Order, known as Kliplák (Klippelhof), was parcelled out. Located near Na Rybníčku Street, which at that time held the status of an independent administrative unit with a rural character of development, the area underwent significant transformation. The street was incorporated into the Jaktař suburb, a new square was laid out and named after the then Mayor of Opava, Emil Rochowanský (now Bezručovo náměstí / Bezruč Square), and buildings of an increasingly urban character were erected: multi-storey rental apartment houses and public buildings such as the House of the Catholic Journeymen’s Association (1894–1895), the Provincial Finance Directorate (1906–1907), and the Directorate of Post Offices and Telecommunications for Silesia (1910–1911). Densification continued after 1918, when the establishment of the new Czechoslovak Republic and the growth of the Czech population in what had until then been predominantly German Opava prompted the construction of new public buildings, particularly schools. The new Czech Middle School was designed within the Provincial Building Authority by its councillor, Karl Gottwald.
The design reflects contemporary efforts to reform both teaching methods and the way children spent their breaks. Gottwald planned a relatively intricate complex structure with clearly defined functions, each recognisable from the exterior. The building is set back from the street and enclosed by a boundary wall with a pair of wrought-iron gates. The four-storey main block, with a symmetrical façade articulated by large rectangular windows and topped with an attic storey and a triangular pediment, is flanked on the right by a three-storey wing originally intended as teachers’ accommodation. To the rear, a transverse two-storey wing connects to the gymnasium. The main entrance, set behind a three-bay arcade, leads into a hall with an Art Deco-style painted coffered reinforced-concrete ceiling. The twin-flight staircase was given a similarly decorative treatment. The gymnasium, illuminated by semicircular windows with oval windows above, also features a coffered reinforced-concrete ceiling. Other original features remain preserved to this day: the metal stair balustrade, the grille in the oval windows between the staircase and adjacent corridors, tiled floors, doors, and the fittings of the cloakrooms and gymnasium. In this neo-classical building, Gottwald combined a composure of expression with a romanticized picturesque quality, employing elements characteristic of his wider oeuvre: arcades (real or blind), triangular pediments, dormers, cylindrical projections, and windows of varied shapes.
The school was named after President Masaryk (Masaryk’s Second Middle School) and was formally opened on 28 October 1926, the anniversary of the foundation of the Republic.
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