larischova villa - our hotel.
krnov mainly grew economically through one trade: the textile industry. all over the city you can find proof of that past, big factory buildings still dominate the city and the owner's stately villas are also highly visible ( albeit crumbling away a bit, unfortunately ). krnov was very rich once upon a time, very evident when you look at the architecture throughout the city, where abundant decor adorns many townhouses and churches seem to be equipped with lots of treasures. the heyday of krnov's textile industry took place at the end of the 19th century ( though the existence of the trade dates back to medieval times ) and lasted until 1930 when many companies had to declare bankruptcy because of the great depression worldwide. through the second world war the city's landscape got changed irreparably as well, not only because of bombings but also because of the subsequent occupation by the soviet troups. many germans and austrians ( who represented about 80 percent of the population ) were displaced which also caused a huge incision in the city's cultural and traditional landscape. the textile industry slowly faded into nothingness and basically ceased to exist after the overthrow of the communist regime. only one producer of textile haberdasheries still exists today, a company called pega.
before pega came into being the meshwork and ribbon factory was owned by franz gabler who bought it in 1901. the building itself was erected in 1890 and it has always been used as a haberdashery factory, even throughout the socialist era. i like the gorgeous facade with the high windows, no matter how disintegrated the whole building looked up close.
you'd think the building was in shambles if it weren't for the lights inside! they still produce ribbons and elastic textiles in here.
someone tried to uphold some form of appearance for possible investors, is my guess about this. i think the building would look real lovely if they had painted the whole of it. this way, it just looks like someone needed to have some sort of respectable entry situation, maybe for shooting official pictures to deceive the public, lol. but it also shows how nice it could look if someone cared enough.
not far away from the pega headquarters you can find this lovely villa, which once belonged to alois chlupaček, another textile producer ( who owned one of the biggest textile factories in krnov ). i am not sure if the headquarters of pega was in his possession, as franz gabler seemed to have been the owner back then, but there are more buildings in the vicinity that also look like they once were factories.
anyway, the villa chlupaček is actually comprised of two villas, both being connected via a centerpiece hall. they were initially built in 1891, but between 1923 and 1925 leopold bauer was assigned to re-construct the whole property. you probably heard of leopold bauer by now, as i mentioned him a few times already, and with him being an important figure in local architecture, it would be ridiculous if you'd never stumble upon his name. he added the centerpiece building to the complex ( which was really modern with its platform roof ) and had a big part in the design of the interiors as well.
the family chlupaček had a tough fate during the nazi era, their factory was confiscated by the nazis as alois didn't want to divorce his wife, who had jewish roots. they later emigrated out of czechia ( but not until the second world war was over ) and continued to live in austria and germany. one of their three sons also seems to have been abducted while he was digging ditches with other 'crossbreeds' ( as the nazis called everyone who was of mixed heritage ). it was never concluded what happened to that son, he stayed a missing person. his father surmised that the russians were behind the deed, but i guess we'll never know for sure.
a better picture of the whole villa. on one side the family of alois resided and on the other side his widowed mother. apparently alois also was a connoisseur of art and a collector which would explain why he insisted on such a sophisticated abode for himself and his family. the building is currently not used, though it belongs to the pega company.
what was kind of astounding to me was the fact that many important and historic buildings in krnov seemed to fall prey to deterioration and neglect. i don't know if that is because of lack of funding or disinterest, but it certainly was a shame. of course many buildings are simply out of use because they seem outdated and not up to today's standards, but still, when i look at germany's old buildings for example, architects go out of their way to remodel and revive such properties and bring them to new life. i think it has a lot to do with lack of funding in the end and that krnov is situated in one of the poorest parts of czechia. that's not to say that these charming villas and majestic factories don't retain a certain appeal with their dilapidated appearance. in fact, to me, this is sort of what made these buildings so incredibly alluring, despite looking at them with one laughing and one crying eye.
another industrial structure, belonging to yet another textile factory, that of florian schmidt, who opened his business in 1882. there are several buildings on this property, and i can't say which purpose this particular one served. on the other side of the building, very prominently running along the river opava, a 5-storied building is looming which was once the main production hall of the company. it was build around 1902 by several architects ( i think eduard frank being one of them ). unfortunately i wasn't able to take a proper shot of that production hall, but here's a picture i snatched off the web. it's a real treat for the eye with its art nouveau facade. there's not much else i could find out about the company and its owners, except that the premises were later used by the state-owned company called karnola during the socialist era, who also produced textiles and weaving products.
i think birches growing on roofs are a pretty good sign that something is unused, am i right?
on the other side of the square some really cute townhouses greeted you.
along the opava river. the river is a tributary arm of the river oder, they join in a city called ostrava which is about 54 kilometers distance from krnov.
when a short gap in the grey sky reveals the beautiful colours of autumn ❤
on the list of remarkable buildings in krnov is this one: former labourer's house, now cinema mír 70. this building mainly got my attention because of the wonderful artwork on the upper half of the building, which indicated that they were created around the 50ies or 60ies. they clearly were of socialist art origin, this style is so very typical for that era. the house itself got erected in 1903 and served the purpose of an assembly hall and meeting place for workers and labourers of any kind. the architect was arnold goldberger. the sgraffiti though were a work of a certain j. šlapeta ( created between 1957 and 1961 ) and came into being during the reconstruction to a cinema. apparently the cinema is one of the very last 70 mm film projection cinemas in the region, which ended up being a godsend for krnov's movie landscape. every year a festival called krrr! is held inside the cinema, which exclusively shows 70 mm movies. this type of movie film is said to be full of rich details and depth, in general having much better quality than today's standard film of 35 mm.
i adored these sgraffiti! the use of patterns and the stylized form of bodies and faces is so appealing to me.
the contrast of the neo-baroque flower ornaments and the mid-century art is also something i'm digging a lot.
the full main entry.
to keep the dignity of women's body parts the artist embellished them with patterned ribbons, which of course was very typical of that time and of that society. one would think after all the fighting for more openness and detabooizating human bodies in the last decades we would have abolished censorship in that regard. but as of now, in 2019, it seems we returned back to the old ways of hiding bodies ( talking about instagram or tumblr nipple policies for example ). that's not to say that i don't like the way the artist used those ribbons, in fact, i think it is a clever and lovely detail, nonetheless.
someone immortalized himself on the facade of the building, probably a dude who helped build the house. unfortunately i couldn't find anything about this someone. jägerndorf though is the german name of krnov, in case anyone forgot what i wrote in my earlier posts ;)
it would be a shame to miss out on the modern architecture in krnov as well, so here, let's have an example of post-modernist architecture. as with all of these it is most difficult for me to determine their creation date, though my guess is that it was probably built in the 70ies or 80ies. this house reminded me a lot of hungarian post-modern buildings, which probably has something to do with the fact that both countries were part of the soviet bloc and therefore the guide lines for architecture were similar. unfortunately i didn't get a frontal picture, which i should've gotten, because that home is really something dreamy ( as this google map shot suggests ). i do love the fence quite a lot as well, with all the geometric elements!
this chimney is one you can see throughout the whole city, especially because it is painted so artfully with cute kites! it belongs to the power station of krnov ( operator is veolia's daughter company dalkia ). it's 123 meter high.
the power station mostly seems to work on green energy, it has several tanks for biomass combustion. apparently it also covers about 1/5th of the local power demand.
i was really smitten with this conveyor belt bridge.
and there peeked a yellow kite ;)
some people are really good with abstract architecture photography. here's my try at it :P i don't count myself as good in those regards, though.
there also was a red kite ;)
a few 100 meters forward i stumbled upon this example of plattenbau housings. no clue when it was built, but it surely looked nice. mostly liked the roof construction, i think it could be escaladed and used as some form of viewing platform.
the sun more and more fought her way through the clouds and illuminated the opava river beautifully. this was shot into the upstream direction of the river.
i discovered a ladybug and spent some time taking portraits 😘
downstream shot into the direction of the city.
returning back to the city there were some more beautiful buildings uncovered. can you believe that i found nothing about this house? i think it's such a jewel, it's a shame that no one thinks that this building is worth documenting. i mean, doesn't it look like it should be a listed building?
this building here is listed though, because it had been of great importance in the past ( but seems to be abandoned now ). it's the palace of silesia, a former fair hall for all things to do with textiles, textile production and stock trade. it's been built by eduard frank in 1907 and is such a great example of art nouveau architecture! this building once belonged to the geiringer&reitler company, who were famous worldwide for selling textiles of high quality.
the main entrance is quite a majestic sight, even in this very tattered condition. when it was built it was very modern, using ferroconcrete in its construction. very typical for art nouveau buildings are the rich embellishments and the stone faces, all heavily inspired by 'natural' forms.
really, this portal was simply gorgeous. i also liked that the windows were painted in a pastel purple, even though i'm pretty sure that wasn't an original element.
a close-up of the silesia coat of arms in the gable.
the building was very run-down when we were on visit and it seems like it is not used anymore ( even though there is evidence that it was in use not too long ago, around 2012 ). the krnov website tells us that the structure is severely damaged and awaits to be renovated.
a few houses further this cutiepie greeted me and let me pet her beautiful 'lucky cat' fur. even though she looks a little grumpy, she was very friendly and even wanted to follow me after cuddles. ❤
rusty gates in a neighbourhood that was full of plattenbau ( panel flat ) housings. i loved how they resembled a wooden gate overgrown with stylized flowers and plants!
the panel flats were mostly painted in bright and colourful colours and therefore created a friendly appearance. as with most of socialist architecture you can barely find any info on when they were built, though you can be sure that most of these are probably from the 70ies to 80ies.
this interesting structure in the smetana gardens looks like a dna molecule, but it has nothing to do with it. it is supposed to resemble a flying canvas, though it's not clear if it has a special meaning for the city. looks pretty nice though! the park was reconstructed in 2013/14 and this pavilion is one part of the revitalisation.
these benches complement the pavilion nearby.
underneath the wooden canopy. this structure is perfect for shooting some interesting photos! i'd probably use this as a prop for a photoshoot ( if i was any good in that lol )
continuing our walk back to the hotel, these three graces were a sweet little surprise! it's called ' joy of life' and was created by olbram zoubek in 1984. zoubek was one of the most important sculptors of the czech republic, contributed greatly to the sculpture scene of the country.
here's something he said that i deemed very fitting, especially when you look at the dynamics of these three women, basically floating towards the sky. this sculpture is so dreamy, so full of motion and elegance, i immediately fell in love. he said:
Tension between the weight and the desire to fly, between the presence and the direction to timelessness, between the taste of material and the effort to deny it, between perfection and inability to achieve it. That all is what makes me exited. To make the sculpture to stand on the ground with its feet and to make it to hitch to the stars.
and hitching towards the stars they surely do, despite being steady on the ground ❤ for more info on olbram zoubek and a glimpse into his gorgeous work, click here.
this little relief facade i shot very randomly and i cannot remember anymore when that was ( though it must've been at evening time as the lights are on ). so i'm squeezing it in, before we head to a different city, where i also didn't take a lot of photos either ;P i just had to document this facade, because i am a sucker for geometrical elements.
the city we later visited that day was called jeseník ( or formerly freiwaldau ). we basically visited because it was advertised as a beautiful spa town, but when we arrived it turned out we didn't quite have the chance to check the city out more properly because it started raining. heavily. we only saw a few sights, but soon retreated to a bakery and had some cake and coffee, before heading back to krnov.
well, looking back i'm regretting a bit to not have returned to jeseník at a different time, because upon visiting the website i realized there was even a palace to be seen, and a very beautiful at that! it also has some beautiful spa related buildings, like an art nouveau dancing hall, a sanatorium built by leopold bauer and various churches. well, sometimes things just don't work out so well and you have to forgo places and cities. that's why i wish sometimes that it would be great to have the ability to see every place and village, cities and countries in one lifetime.
the city hall on the masaryk square. this building is actually a renaissance building (1610), but it looks quite baroque ( underwent some minor reconstruction in 1710 ). surrounding the city hall were some very untypical modern buildings, untypical because usually a city center is full of historic structures. apparently the socialist government tore down a lot of old buildings to realize some sort of ideal socialist cityscape.
jeseník is the founding place of hydrotherapy, which was invented by vincenz priessnitz. though his practices are widely looked at as extreme and not quite healthy today, back in the days ( in the 19th century ) he was famous for his work and people flocked to his spa in masses. the spa itself is situated in lázně jeseník ( formerly bad gräfenberg ), which is a small village in the jeseník district. it still is in operation, though the curing process has been adapted to modern medicine standards.
there is an old castle as well, the water fortress. though there's no water surrounding it any more ;) it was built somewhen in the 13th century, and, as with many historic buildings, went through many remodelings. one of the most famous inhabitants of the castle was carl ditters von dittersdorf, a musician and componist of the first viennese school of classical music. he lived here for a long time and functioned as a captain of the city office, while he also dedicated his time to writing and composing music.
today you can visit a museum inside that offers permanent and special exhibits throughout the year.
this plaque is attached to the walls of the castle in the entrance area and dedicated to dittersdorf.
the courtyard of the castle. we didn't enter the castle because it was about to close up. we decided to go for cake and coffee instead to flee from the starting rain.
i shot a few more quick photos of the castle. the facade is made out of unworked stones, basically rendering it a huge puzzle piece ;P
and the castle from the back.
we spend our remaining time in a little cafe called 'zdravá kavárna', which offered a wide array of coffee & tea specialties and very tasty cakes and baked goods :3 also, they offered artisanal goods from spices to chocolates and local produce. it was very charming!
the next post will lead us deeper into the hrubý jeseník, to an enchanting place at the foot of the praděd, so, like always, either stay tuned or just do whatever :P
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