About the site
Emperor Joseph Park (now sady Svobody / Svobody Park) was established in the first half of the 19th century as one of several parks created on the site of the demolished southern section of the town fortifications. In the 1840s and 1850s, construction began along a planned ring boulevard modelled on Vienna’s Ringstrasse. South of Emperor Joseph Park, on the forecourt of the former Hradec Gate a new square was laid out and named the Timber Market (Holzmarkt, later Beethovenovo náměstí / Beethoven Square, now náměstí Svobody / Svobody Square). While prestigious public buildings were already being erected along sections of the ring boulevard in the second half of the 19th century, more substantial multi-storey buildings only began to appear in the area of today’s náměstí Svobody (Svobody Square) and sady Svobody (Svobody Park) at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Its north-eastern side was not completed until the 1930s, with the construction of the Drechsler Printing Works.
The printing works at the end of Panská Street (now Masarykova třída / Masaryk Avenue) was the oldest in Opava. As early as 1716, it was operated by Johan Schindler. In 1807, Josef Georg Trassler, owner since 1779, began publishing the newspaper Troppauer Zeitung (from 1918 under the title Deutsche Post). In 1883, Alfred Trassler sold the business to Adolf Drechsler. The name “Trassler” remained in use for the book and lithographic printing works until 1899, when Drechsler formally registered the firm under his name. Originally based at Poštovní Street 5 (now the “U Tiskárny” restaurant), the premises accommodated not only the printing works and the editorial offices of the Troppauer Zeitung, the weekly Deutsche Woche, and the fire service journal Österreichisch-Schlesische Feuerwehr-Zeitung, but also the Opava branch of the Danube insurance company. During the First Republic, when Drechsler’s printing works had become the largest enterprise of its kind in Opava, the capacity of the old two-storey building was no longer sufficient. In 1930, Adolf Drechsler therefore commissioned the Opava architect and builder Erich Geldner to design a modern building, situated between the old printing works and the premises of the Pietät funeral service.
The three-storey building, rectangular in plan, defines the street frontage while presenting, with its austere forms in the spirit of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), a marked contrast to the surrounding historic architecture. The cubic volume is heightened in its right-hand section over two window bays. The ground floor, finished with textured plaster, is separated from the upper storeys by a prominent continuous cornice that wraps around the corner. It is divided into six bays with tall rectangular windows and basement lights. The main entrance, placed at the far right, is framed by rounded mouldings. Next to it is a shallow niche, probably intended for advertising displays. The upper floors have seven window bays with wider windows. The building is crowned by a raised cornice, and the flat roof was originally arranged as a terrace with tubular railings. Later postmodern alterations disrupted the original layout. In the courtyard, ground-floor commercial units with glazed frontages and timber-clad parapets were added to the older historicist structures. In 2001–2002, the building was adapted as the headquarters of the Kooperativa insurance company to designs by Kateřina Kučírková of the Baneba studio; this work included a new side entrance with a quarter-turn staircase and a canopy.
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