About the site
With the advent of modern times, the care of mentally ill patients became an integral part of healthcare and it was increasingly recognized that even those suffering from mental illness had the right to treatment in an environment conducive to recovery. This led to the construction of sanatoria and asylums in the form of pavilion complexes. The Opava asylum for the mentally ill, or rather its oldest part, was built on the south-western edge of the town between 1886 and 1889 to the designs of Waldemar Osterloff. Conceived in the Neo-Renaissance style with a focus on rational urban planning, the complex consisted of twelve mirror-symmetrical pavilions (six for men on the right, six for women on the left), a palatial administrative building at the entrance, a chapel, laundry room, kitchen, and an isolation pavilion. The buildings were set in landscaped gardens, and the complex was connected to the neighbouring hospital. Between 1907 and 1914, the complex was extended to the design of Adolf Müller, with additional buildings to the north-west: a poorhouse pavilion for men (no. XVIII), new pavilions for disturbed male and female patients (nos. XIX, XX, XXI), another isolation pavilion, and a kitchen. This broke the strict symmetry of the original plan, though the division into male and female sections was maintained.
The last addition was the pavilion for disturbed female patients (no. XXII), constructed in 1926–1927 in the northernmost part of what was then the Silesian Institute for the Treatment of Nervous Diseases. It was designed by the Provincial Building Authority under architect Karl Gottwald. Gottwald conceived the pavilion in a traditionalist style with elements of German regionalism (Heimatstil). The two-storey, L-shaped building with a hipped roof is articulated by shallow side risalits, while the polygonal entrance risalit with a staircase tower projects more prominently and is capped with a pyramidal roof. The façades are divided into vertical recessed panels containing rectangular windows, which on the main wing’s front are topped with round arches. The entrance risalit has a two-tract plan, with a transverse corridor separating the two-tract main wing, whose broad central corridor was intended as a day room. The side wing is three-tract. A second pavilion, designed as a mirror image, was planned but never built due to financial constraints and the abolition of the Land of Silesia (and its incorporation into the newly constituted Land of Moravia-Silesia).
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