The Silesian Museum

In 2014 it was 200 years since the first public museum in the Czech Republic was founded in the grammar school situated in a former Jesuit college. The tradition continued in 1882 when the Silesian Museum for Art and Industry (later Franz Joseph Museum for Art and Trade) was founded on the initiative of the Chamber of Business and Commerce. The museum was sponsored by businessmen as well as the Duke of Opava John II of Liechtenstein, who donated a plot for a new exhibition building.

The museum was built in the years 1893–1895 in the place of the city castle. The Neo-Renaissance building was financed by the Chamber of Business and Commerce. Winners of the public tender were brothers Drexler and Joseph Maria Olbrich, but the constructions was realized by architects from Vienna Johann Scheringer and Franz Kachler.

The two-storey Neo-Renaissance building found inspiration in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Vienna. The richly decorated front facade is segmented by a prominent avant-corps with a protruding straircase, and two enclosed balconies. The roof ends with a dome on a polygonal tambour. The dome carries a sculpture of a genius with a torch and laurel wreath designed by Theodor Friedel, who is also the author of Pegases on the sides of the dome. The winged horse is accompanied by Muses of Music and Art. The original sculptures were heavily damaged and they had to be replaced by replicas. The building also features four terracotta sculptures allegorizing Art, Science, Trade and Craft.

The interior is dominated by a square vestibule with a pillared archade. On the ground floor there were seven exhibition rooms and an art room, on the first floor there were two picture galleries for short-term exhibitions, and also the seat of the Chamber of Business and Commerce. There was also a conference room with three tall windows and a balcony. After the chamber had relocated to a new representative bulding, today’s Petr Bezruč Culture House, the museum aqcuired more exhibition area. There was a project to add another building that would serve as a grammar school museum and library. The new building should have been adjacent to the back facade and should have mirrored the old museum building. The project was never realized, though.

After the foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic, the museum was passed over to the provincial administration, which resulted in a change of name as well as purpose. The key focus of the museum changed to national history, which was reflected in interest in ethnography and archeology. The museum also took over the collections of Matice Museum. At the end of World War II the museum building was damaged when Opava was bombed by the American Army. In 1947 a reconstruction designed by architect Zdeněk Alexa from Brno returned the interiors to their original state. The general overhaul was finished in 1955, when the museum reopened with new exhibitions on natural science, archeology, and evolution of the society. Further exhibitions were added more than ten years later in 1981. The dome, which was completely destroyed during the war, was rebuilt in 1986.

The exhibitions were updated after the revolution in 1989, but their presentation did not live up to the tradition and potential of the museum, which lacked organization. The building itself was falling into disrepair. In the years 2010–2012 the building underwent a major reconstruction and today it offers new exhibition areas, including the cellar. The permanent exhibition Expozice Slezsko introduces in four sections the nature, history, culture, and people of Silesia.