PATRICIAN HOUSE NO. 270
Introduction
House No. 270 stands on the town’s main thoroughfare and represents a typical patrician residence from the period of greatest prosperity in the mid-sixteenth century. Although it underwent several alterations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it preserved its valuable Renaissance core and, above all, its outstanding portal, which continues to define its architectural character.
History
The house belonged to the mining clerk Wolf Thiel, a member of the influential administrative class connected with the mining authority. In addition to House No. 270, he also owned House No. 292, which testifies to his wealth and social standing in the town during the mid-sixteenth century. The office of mining clerk played a crucial role in the administration of the mining town, and this status was reflected in the representative architectural design of his houses.
After the great town fire of 1873, the building was structurally altered. Until 1914 it functioned as an inn, after which it was used as a soap workshop. In 1936 a shop window was inserted into the ground floor, disrupting the original appearance of the ground level.
A major alteration took place in 1963, when the original articulated façade was removed and replaced with triple windows. This intervention significantly damaged the historic character of the building and negatively affected the condition of the entrance portal.
Description
The building is a two-storey frontage house with a gabled roof, today covered with aluminium roofing sheets. The present façade is smooth and lacks the original architectural articulation removed during modern alterations.
The dominant feature is the Renaissance entrance portal dated 1543, executed in the forms of Saxon Renaissance. It takes the form of an aedicule composed of slender columns with composite capitals resting on consoles and supporting a profiled cornice. Above it rises a superstructure with a transom window, flanked by shell-shaped panels enriched with fantastic figures of sirens with fish bodies and bird heads, transitioning into leaf rosettes.
The jambs of the semicircular entrance are richly profiled with intersecting round mouldings and recesses. The lower part was heavily damaged during later building interventions. In circular medallions at the sides appear portrait heads of a man and a woman wearing berets, probably representing the builders of the house.
Restoration and Heritage Value
House No. 270 represents a typical Jáchymov patrician house with a Renaissance layout. Its portal belongs to a group of artistically refined local portals created within a single decade around the mid-sixteenth century. A common feature of these works is their delicate linear composition and precise stonemasonry detail.
In form, the portal is related to that of House No. 292, also dated 1543. These works were produced under strong influence of the early Saxon Renaissance in the circle of stonemasons associated with the construction of the dean’s church. Despite later inappropriate alterations, the portal of House No. 270 remains an important testimony to the high standard of Renaissance stone carving in the town.
Photo gallery: https://www.rajce.idnes.cz/mipalfi/album/jachymov-dum-cp-270
