History of the structure

For many decades, the military presence in Opole was a very distinctive element of the city. In 1895 the city authorities decided to build a separate barracks complex located in the area of Ozimska (then Malapanerstrasse), Plebiscytowa, J. Kanii, Drzymały streets - at that time on the outskirts of Opole. The plot was 6.572 acres. The design was made by construction councillors Havestadt and Sonntag. The complex was to consist of residential buildings, an officer’s mess hall, a guard building, a detention centre, workshops, vehicle garages and a weapons storage facility, as well as latrines.

The building was erected together with the barracks complex and the garrison hospital in the years 1896-1898 with the financial outlay of the town of Opole after taking a bank loan. The cost of building the barracks was 1,806,000 marks and the hospital 314,000 marks. Both buildings were leased to the German army at a cost of 70,000 marks per year. In 1897-1898 a barracks hospital was built on the north side of Ozimska Street. In 1909, the barracks housed the 63rd Infantry Regiment with three regimental battalions commanded by Major von Kraewel (Battalion I), Major Falkenhah (Battalion II) and Major Gündell (Battalion III). The regiment’s staff consisted of four officers: Colonel Otto Hennig, Major Hans Jancke and Second Lieutenant Oskar Scharioth. The German army left Opole in 1920. The barracks housed French, Italian, and English troops under the authority of the Inter-Allied Governmental and Plebiscite Commission for Upper Silesia, which took over the region, where - in accordance with Article 88 of the Treaty of Versailles - a plebiscite was held on 20 March 1921.

In 1927, the barracks served the garrison and police as barracks and living quarters. The former Garrison Hospital was leased to private individuals. In general, the entire area between the barracks and the railroad traction (as far as Nowa Wieś Królewska) was occupied by the workshops and housing estates of the Railway Rolling Stock Repair Plant (known as Wagonówka), which employed over 1300 people (clerks, craftsmen, and labourers).

After 1945, the barracks became the property of the State Treasury. In the 1950s, the building in question was excluded from the barracks and transferred to administrative and storage premises of the Opole Board of Pharmacies (later the name was changed to: the Voivodeship Board of Pharmacies, Pharmaceutical Supply Company “Cefarm” and State Pharmaceutical Supervision in Opole). In the 1990s, the building housed the Post-Secondary School of Cultural Animators and Librarians and the Office of Technical Inspection - Inspectorate in Opole. Then the building was the seat of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Opole. In June 2014, the building was bought by the Association of Friends of Catholic Schools (SPSK) for the seat of all SPSK schools in Opole. Currently, the building houses a kindergarten, an elementary school and a Catholic secondary school, as well as the Office of Technical Inspection - Inspectorate in Opole.

Description of the structure

The barracks building is located in downtown Opole, in its south-eastern part. The plot is fenced on all sides with a contemporary brick wall. The monument was erected on the plan of the letter “C”, with a strongly elongated side along the north-south axis. It consists of three three-bay wings connected with two-bay annexes. The four-storey barracks building has a basement and a flat roof. The building was accentuated by the central avant-corps on the axis of the front elevation and the side wings. The elevations were made of clinker bricks in a cross pattern and articulated by a separate pedestal zone and cornices above it - the pedestal one, the cordon one (above the level of the first and the third storey), and the crowning cornice encircling the body of the building.

The western front elevation is 9-axial with a prominent central avant-corps, in the ground floor of which the main entrance is located. Above, on the inter-storey levels, there are doubled pairs of windows, above the fourth storey there is a window opening closed with a full arch. The avant-corps is flanked by side, single-axis annexes. On the eastern side of the elevation there is an ornamental entrance portal. It was framed on both sides by lesene and topped with a triangular pediment.

The northern elevation of the northern wing is 7-axial, asymmetrical, with an avant-corps central part containing the staircase. The articulation of the elevation of the south wing is analogous. The front elevations of the side wings are 3-axis. The east elevation of the northern connector is 6-axial, the west elevation is 3-axial. The articulation for the south connector was developed similarly.  

The window openings are different in size and shape - most of them are closed in segments. Simplified decorative elements, characteristic of all elevations, are brick cornices, a finial in the form of a stepped frieze and portals.

Visitor access: the site is accessible, inhabited

Author: Joanna Banik, Katarzyna Latocha, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Opole, 13.07.2018

Bibliography

• Borkowski M., Opole przełomu wieków XIX/XX, Łódź 2015.
• Hamada A., Architektura Opola wpisana w dzieje miasta, Opole 2008.
• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, ed. T. Chrzanowski, M. Kornecki, Vol. VII (Opolskie Voivodeship), Warsaw 1968.
• Kunze M., Przewodnik po Opolu i okolicy, Opole 1927 [reprint from 2005]
• Malec-Masnyk B., Plebiscyt na Górnym Śląsku, Opole 1991
• 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 w zespole koszar, compiled by W. Żurakowski, 1997 [in:] resources of the Voivodeship Heritage Protection Office in Opole.