HOUSE NO. 127
Introduction
The importance of the original builder is evident above all from the location. The house stands directly opposite the town hall and close to the Dean’s Church of St. Joachim, in the historic centre of the town. Such a prominent position could only be afforded by the wealthiest and most influential citizens during the silver mining boom.
After the great town fire at the end of the 19th century, the building underwent major reconstruction. The roof structure was completely altered, as evidenced by the rebuilt gable. The present roof is a collar-beam structure with a gabled roof. Despite these modifications, the Renaissance core and the Gothic-Renaissance ribbed vaults on the ground floor have survived.
The cellar is of exceptional value. Originally accessible directly from the street, the entrance was removed during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, when part of the local SS unit was based here.
History and transformations
In the 1970s, the appearance of the house was significantly degraded. The Neo-Renaissance façade was removed and replaced with roughcast plaster, and ceramic cladding was added at ground-floor level. Thanks to preserved plans by Franz Rehn, however, this intervention is reversible, making restoration of the historic appearance possible.
Originally a patrician residence, the house later served to accommodate spa guests. The most notable guest was the writer Karl May. In the second half of the 20th century, the deanery and parish office moved here.
Description
The two-storey building is oriented towards the street with the eaves side of its gabled roof. The façade is divided into eight window axes. The former carriage passage in the left ground-floor axis has been converted into a garage, while the main entrance is located on the right.
The layout consists of a deep four-bay structure with a transverse two-bay section.
Condition after the fire of 1873
The reconstruction project was prepared by Alois Daut of Chomutov and submitted in May 1873 to the owner Emanuel Groeger. The rebuilding made full use of the surviving masonry. The corners were accentuated with rusticated pilasters. The façade featured sill and string courses with recessed panels intended for business signs. Windows were framed with mouldings; those on the ground floor were topped with semicircular cornices and indicated keystones.
Cellar
The cellar is among the most remarkable in Jáchymov. The main room in the left section is a spacious hall with a barrel vault supported by a central pillar known as a “monk”. Smaller rooms are located on the right, and in the central axis there is the original, now bricked-up staircase entrance from the street, covered with a ribbed vault.
The right-hand section of the cellar is particularly valuable, as it likely housed some form of production. A furnace and heating installation have been preserved, along with grooves and niches in the walls from former shelves and counters.
In the 1990s, part of the cellar was closed off as part of radon protection measures, but these alterations had to be removed due to rapid moisture penetration. The cellars are structurally comparable to those of the town hall and to the ground-floor vaults of House No. 146, the residence of the mining entrepreneur Hans Bock from 1555.
The spontaneous collapse of one wall revealed a flooded adit below the cellar floor. The water level in the adit lies approximately one metre below that of the underground stream flowing beneath Jáchymov just a few metres from the building. The cellar is also likely connected to a drainage adit from the now inaccessible underground of the Church of St. Joachim.
Rear building
Rear buildings are characteristic of Jáchymov. While the front house served representative and residential purposes, the rear section provided economic facilities. The rear mine workings also helped stabilise the slope behind the house. In this case, however, only fragments of the rear building survive, including parts of a staircase and small sections of masonry still serving as retaining structures.
Fotogalerie: https://mipalfi.rajce.idnes.cz/Jachymov_-_Dum_c._p.127_-_fara/
