Converter Station

One of the most remarkable technical places of interest in Opava is a converter station in Rybí Market behind the former Marianum. In 1990 the building, which has no match anywhere in the Czech Republic, was added to the list of protected historic buildings.

The need to provide electric voltage for the town public transport emerged in 1905 when the first tram connecting Horní Square to the cinema Alhambra in Kateřinky started to operate at a speed of 12 km per hour. The line was later extended connecting Krnovská Street with the City Gardens. Another line led from the railway station Opava východ via the streets Janská, Ostrožná and Olomoucká to the town hospital, and then later to the psychiatric hospital. There were eight trams operating on two lines with a metre-wide gauge. In 1912 a third line was added, which started at the theatre in Horní Square and led via Ostrožná and Otická Streets to the town cemetery. In 1948 the first line was extended to the Sweedish chapel on one end, and on the other end a new section was added, which led from the crossroad of Jaselská and Krnovská Streets to Jaktař, where it ended in the place of today’s restaurant Na točně. In 1950s the tracks as well as the roadbed fell into disrepair and the tram operation was gradually discontinued to be replaced by trolleybuses, which first drove out in 1952 and later became one of the symbols of public transport in Opava. The last tram went through Opava four years later. In commemoration of trams in Opava there are sections of tracks built in the paving in Hrnčířská Street and Dolní Square.  

The first tram yard was built in Krnovská Street. In 1903–1904 an industrial building of a steam-electric power station that changed alternating current to direct current was built on the premises. As the public transport network grew, the converter station was moved closer to the town centre. In 1929 a simple funcionalist ferroconcrete building with brick panelling and brizolit plaster was built according to a project by Erich Geldner. The original fittings, voltage transformers, mercury rectifiers, and fast circuit brakers, which were made in 1905 by a Berlin company AEG and moved to the new converter station from Krnovská Street, have been preserved to this day.

In the converter station the 22 kV main was connected to buses and the main switch to the transformer that powered six anode mercury lamps AEG 600V/250A with a needle ignition and distributor. There were four lamps in two rows. The direct current 600 V was then distributed in individual sections, which is evidenced by names of streets on the preserved labels.

The converter station was in operation without any major repairs until 1985 when two new converter stations were built in the streets Čajkovského and Kylešovská.  For the past thirty years the building has been decaying; its future remains unclear.