The Breda department store in Opava opened 90 years ago; today it is deteriorating

The original department store was established at the end of the 19th century, but three decades later, its owners decided on a radical modernization, hiring architect Leopold Bauer for the project. This Silesian native and student of the famous Vienna professor Otto Wagner, among other things the author of the Jeseník Priessnitz Sanatorium, was inspired by American models and designed an extraordinary building in Opava. This was evident not only from the outside but also in terms of technical equipment.

Bauer placed pillars and display cases in the ground floor of the corner seven-story palace made of reinforced concrete and brick, with the centerpiece of the building being a glass hall and a two-flight wooden staircase. The first floor featured a café and a restaurant. The technical facilities of the house, two floors of which were hidden underground, included personal and cargo elevators, an automatic telephone exchange with fifty subscriber stations, modern air conditioning, and automatic fire alarms.

After nationalization, it was renamed Průkopník and later became part of the state enterprise Prior. It returned to its original name only after November 1989. The building's name was in the headlines due to a suspicious privatization, and a court case over ownership was also in progress. The building is now closed, but in November 2012, a shopping center called Breda & Weinstein was opened in the neighborhood at the site of the former brewery, linking its name to the history of the famous building, which is desperately seeking a new owner.