PATRICIAN HOUSE NO. 140 – SLAVIC HOUSE
Introduction
House No. 140 stood on what is now Republic Square and formed part of the historic street frontage. Its Renaissance core dates to the 1540s, a period of the town’s greatest prosperity as a major mining and trading centre. Over the centuries both its appearance and function changed, and in the twentieth century it was known primarily as a hotel under the name “Slavic House”.
History
The original Renaissance burgher house was built during a period of economic and architectural expansion. In the first half of the eighteenth century its façade was remodelled in the Baroque style, giving it a more representative appearance in line with contemporary aesthetic preferences. From this phase came the painted façade decoration with illusionistic architecture, fragments of which were still uncovered in the twentieth century.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the house functioned mainly as an accommodation and hospitality establishment. It bore several names, including Hotel Stadt Dresden, Hotel Erlbeck, Red House and later Slavic House. With approximately twenty guest rooms, it ranked among the established businesses on the main square. Gradual building alterations, however, led to a deterioration of its historic substance and technical condition.
In the first half of the 1980s the building was demolished. Its loss represented an irreversible disappearance of a significant historic structure within the town centre and a noticeable disruption of the urban composition of Republic Square.
Description
The building was a two-storey frontage house with seven window axes and a gabled roof. The façade was articulated by stone window surrounds, window sills and a prominently profiled main cornice. The Baroque façade treatment was complemented by painted illusionistic architecture composed of Corinthian pilasters, volutes and festoons, fragments of which were revealed during later surveys.
On the ground floor there was a carriage passage vaulted with four fields of cross vaulting with groins and flat keystones. The groins sprang directly from the masonry without imposts, corresponding to the local Renaissance building tradition. On both sides of the passage were flat-ceilinged rooms later adapted for shops and services. In the final period of the building’s existence, the interior spaces were not accessible to the public.
Restoration
The house was never restored. Its demolition in the first half of the 1980s constitutes a significant loss to the historic building fabric of the town. Its heritage value lay in the preserved Renaissance core, the Baroque façade treatment and its later function as a hotel, reflecting the transformation of historic burgher houses in a spa and tourist town.
