Obchodní dům Breda Department store

Welcome to Opava. You're standing right in front of Breda's famous department store. Raise your head and look before you at this vast structure, which, despite the fated fates and ongoing rescue work, still radiates its former nobility. Feel the massive mass of a building that occupies a large part of the street, and try to imagine what it must have been like for people in the late 1920s. You are now at a monument that has written the history of not only our city, but of the state.

Let us return together in time to a time when something quite extraordinary began to form here. The year was nineteen hundred twenty-seven when the construction of this current department store began. The business owner David Weinstein, the owner of a successful company who wanted to build something really big, was behind this grand plan. He wanted to create space for the people to match the best shopping temples abroad. That's why he invited the great Viennese architect Leopold Bauer to cooperate. Together they created a construction work that grew from nineteen hundred twenty-seven to nineteen twenty-eight as the largest department store in Czechoslovakia at the time.

Now pay attention to the architecture itself. Look at the clean lines and overall arrangement of the facade. The construction is an important example of modern architecture with clear and unmistakable inspiration from the great overseas style from behind the ocean. Architect Leopold Bauer designed the building to combine efficiency with representative appearance. Note how the various parts of the construction work harmoniously, although the object has passed many difficult tests over the decades. The town of Opava has recently started the rescue and reconstruction process. If you look carefully at the façade and windows, you will see the results of recent work from the year 23, when there has been extensive repair and replacement of hundreds of shutters, which help to restore this architectural jewel its original dignity and protect it from further decay.

With this place are the fates of many interesting people who made up history or left their mark. In addition to David Weinstein and the brilliant architect Leopold Bauer, history has touched a number of other personalities over the years. For example, remember Kamil Kolk, Linda Bitt, Kurt Gebauer, George Blat, or Joy Adamson. Each of these faces in its own way illustrates the varied cultural and social life that belonged to this place and still belonged.

Let's now take a look at some of the attractions of the moved chronicle of this building. Obchodní dům Breda has undergone a dramatic development. After World War II, exactly in nineteenth hundred forty-five, it was renamed and the building was named Pioneer's Business House. Under that name, many decades worked before the nineteenth hundred and eighty-nine people returned to the original and proud name of Breda. Unfortunately, history has not always been merciful. A huge blow was sustained by an object in the year 24, when a devastating fire hit the entire building. The hope of saving seemed to be fading. But the break came in twenty-one, when the town of Opava approved the purchase of the whole building into its hands and assumed full responsibility for its future. Thanks to this, we can stand before a repaired facade today and watch this symbol of commercial spirit and modern construction rise from the ashes.

Finally, I would like to thank you for the attention you have given to this story. Obchodní dům Breda in Opava remains, despite all the wounds of fate, a monument that is worth exploring. Take a moment of peace, go around the block of buildings, feel the atmosphere of the place and let the genius loci breathe on you, which persists here despite all the changes in time. I bid you farewell and wish you the rest of the day to discover the more treasures of our city.