It is historically linked with Piast dukes and was visited by King John Casimir in 1655. From 1824 to the 1950s, it continued to house the "Pod Lwem" pharmacy.

History

The building was built probably in the 16th century; its present form is the results of seventeenth-century alterations, and its Classicist architectural décor dates from 1824. Until 1532, the building in that place was owned by Piast dukes. After the death of the last Piast of the Opole and Racibórz line, the tenement house passed into the hands of baron Fragstein. After a fire in 1615 (1618?), the building became the property of the von Oppersdorff family of counts ruling in Głogówek.

In 1655, during the Swedish Flood, it is said that the house at Rynek 1 had been visited by King John Casimir who was there as a guest of the von Oppersdorff family. In the 18th century, the house was the first at the market square (except for the stalls) to obtain the right to conduct trade. In 1824, the building was bought by pharmacist Heinrich Grabowsky who opened there the "Pod Lwem" pharmacy, which operated in the same place until the 1950s. The statue of a lion placed in a façade niche could have been made around 1824.

The Baroque entrance portal was moved to the south façade around 1927 and has been leading to a municipal music library for many years. The building is one of the few buildings at the market square that was not destroyed during the last war. In the late 20th century, the ground floor underwent alterations.

Description

The building is situated in a densely built-up area of the western market square frontage, in its south-western corner, with its gable wall facing the market square. It is made of brick and plastered, with a roof clad with roof tiles. The hallway facing Zamkowa Street is covered with a groin vault, while the front bay is topped with a barrel vault with lunettes.

The house was erected on a floor plan in the shape of an elongated rectangle, consists of basement, three storeys and usable attic. In its south-western corner, there is a cylindrical bay ending at the level of the cornice and resting on a narrower buttress. The longer south façade is seven-axial, with a stone Baroque portal on the middle axis. The portal is surmounted by a round arch, decorated with pilasters and straight cornice. The west façade (facing the market square) is three-axial, with display windows on the ground floor. Over the former entrance to the pharmacy, there is a small niche with a lion statue. The remaining façades are obscured by neighbouring buildings. The window openings are rectangular; on the second storey they are framed with pilasters and a simple cornice (doubled pilaster and triangular pediment in the window over the portal); on the third storey the windows are surrounded by stucco surrounds. Rectangular windows of the attic are surmounted by triangular pediments. The ground floor of the building is decorated with rustication in plaster.

Residential and service building; viewing of the monument is possible from the outside.

compiled by Ewa Kalbarczyk-Klak, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Opole, 18-06-2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, woj. opolskie, miasto Opole i pow. opolski, Vol. VII, issue 11, pp. 36-37.
• Publication from the archives of the Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Opole.
• Opole. Dzieje i tradycja, Link B., Tarka K., Zajączkowska U. (eds.), Opole 2011.
• Hamada A., "Dom Książęcy - siedziba Piastów", Gazeta Wyborcza, Opole nr 213, issue dated 10.09.2004, supplement "MIASTO", p. 6.
• Śląsk. Zabytki sztuki w Polsce, collective work, Warsaw 2006, p. 654.