Ostravské muzeum

Corner building no. 54

This burgher’s house (which held the right to brew beer) stood on a typically medieval elongated parcel (lot), which was somewhat wider than the other buildings due to its position on the street corner. The house’s possession of brewing rights suggests that it was among the oldest buildings in the area. Several buildings made of wood and clay were constructed here from the mid-13th century to the mid-16th century, though we do not know precisely what they looked like. They were probably single-floor structures with either shingled or thatched roofs. Their layout (at least in the case of the more recent buildings) appears to have consisted of three parts: a living kitchen, a hall, and a storage chamber. It was only after the great fire of 1556 that the last of these structures was replaced by a new building with a masonry basement – though we have no information on its layout or appearance.

A two-floor stone house was built around the turn of the 17th century (or during the first half of the 17th century), featuring a characteristic Renaissance-era layout in two tracts with an angled corridor. There was a covered arcade on the street-facing side of the building. The front part of the ground floor contained a lower hall and a vaulted chamber. The hall gave access to a living kitchen with a smoke-catcher. Behind the vaulted chamber, in the central part of the building, were steps leading to the upper floor and the basement, with access to the courtyard along the perimeter wall of the building. The rear part of the ground floor contained a large living room facing onto the courtyard area and a storage chamber. The steps to the upper floor gave access to the upper hall, next to which was a large living room facing onto the street. In the rear part of the upper floor was another living room and two small chambers. The rooms in the rear part of the ground floor and the upper floor had ceilings constructed with wooden beams. There was a cellar below the front part of the house, and the rear part of the house (which contained the living quarters) was half-timbered.

The first written record of the house is in a source dating from the second third of the 17th century (though at this time the building was still unnumbered). The document records how “the corner house located opposite the town hall”, owned by Mikuláš Sobek from Kornice, was purchased by the Dean of Moravská Ostrava Jan Mathesius on 19 September 1637 for the sum of 600 gulden.

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