The Neo-Renaissance building with elements of Art Nouveau already at the beginning of the 20th century aroused admiration and pride of the city residents. It was a material realization of the architectural style of the so-called fin de siecle, an outcome of many trends, including mainly neo-Renaissance and Art Nouveau.

History of the structure

The building was erected between 1905-1910 according to the project of arch. G. Scholz especially for the seat of a branch of the Reichsbank. The decision to build a bank was made by the state authorities in 1900. The bank’s building design also included special rooms for living quarters for the bank’s director and deputy director. Private, representative gardens adjoined the building on the west side.

With the establishment of the bank’s branch, the annual turnover was over 2.5 million marks in 1906 and rose to 721 million marks in 1910. In 1925, the bank building was expanded. A one-storey annex was added on the south side to house the bank’s operating room.

It is worth adding that the financial success of the Opole branch of the Reichsbank was an impulse to establish other banks in the city. In the 1920s, as many as 10 banks functioned in Opole, including 8 German and 2 Polish banks.

After the end of World War II, the tenement house became the property of the State Treasury. After 1945, the building underwent minor renovations and housed the seat of the National Bank of Poland. In 1978 the building was entered into the register of historic monuments of the Opolskie Voivodeship.

Description of the structure

The building is located in downtown Opole, at the junction of Damrota and Kołłątaja Streets. It is a free-standing building erected on a rectangular floor plan elongated along the north-south axis. It is built of brick and the ground floor walls are covered with stone rustication in a sandstone strip system. The lower storey is the highest one, its windows are closed with full arches, on the eastern side they are located in arcaded niches, on the western side - they are closed straight. The building is cellared, with three storeys and a usable attic, covered with a shed roof. It is a corner building, with two representative elevations — the northern and western one. The main entrance is located in the central axis of the northern elevation and is also an element of the elevation’s artistic decoration. It was given monumental features by combining a portal with a balcony. It was accented with a portico composed of two pairs of Ionic columns on pedestals, supporting a simple entablature, interrupted by the width of the entrance. Above it there is a narrow balcony with a stone balustrade, the plane of which is filled with lesene between which laurel wreaths are placed. At the level of the second storey, five-part windows were set in the form of arcades supported by columns arranged one behind the other. The entrance is preceded by a stone staircase. The doorway, containing a single wooden door with fanlights topped with a semi-circular arch filled with a decorative grating, is flanked by columns placed on pedestals and supported by a cornice. At the level of the second and third storey there are twin windows - framed in one profiled frame, divided by a column into two semi-circular openings. Loggia in part of the second floor. The entire building is surrounded by a crowning cornice supported by corbels.

Visitor access: accessible, used

Author: Joanna Banik, Katarzyna Latocha, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Opole, 18.07.2018

Bibliography

• Borkowski M., Opole przełomu wieków XIX/XX, Łódź 2015.
• Hamada A., Architektura Opola wpisana w dzieje miasta, Opole 2008.
• Studium historyczno-urbanistyczne miasta Opola, Katalog zabytków – Opole Wschód, PKZ Wrocław 1990 [in:] resources of the Voivodeship Heritage Protection Office in Opole.
• Karta ewidencyjna zabytków architektury i budownictwa: budynek użyteczności publicznej (bank) ul. Damrota 2 w Opolu, compiled by Z. Łabęcki, 1986 [in:] resources of the Voivodeship Heritage Protection Office in Opole.