Porubský Arch is after repairs, the reconstruction also prepared a reminder of the present time

Ostrava - The Ostrava district of Poruba has its landmark - the Arch - repaired after about a year and a half. This cultural monument, which includes apartments, is among the most famous buildings in the style of socialist realism, known as sorel. It serves as the entrance gate and the main landmark of one of the most populous districts in Ostrava. Today, Mayor Lucie Baránková Vilamová (ANO) said this to journalists.

"The Arch needed renovation. It had been discussed for a long time, but we kept encountering complicated ownership relations, where we owned half and Residomo, now Heimstaden, owned the other half. The company offered us to buy it out, and we seized the opportunity. In the autumn of 2019, we took out a loan, immediately purchased the apartments, and started planning the renovation," the mayor stated. According to her, the transaction was completed at an ideal time for the district. "We secured the loan at an interest rate of 1.7 percent fixed for 20 years. Today it would be six or seven percent. We bought 128 apartments for 129 million. Just look at any real estate agency's website to get an idea of how much we would be paying if we were purchasing now. And we won the entire renovation contract for 109 million crowns; given the current material prices, we would be in completely different ranges," she added.

Work on the repair of the unique building, which was the only one in Poruba to appear on a postal stamp, began last spring. The builders replaced roofs, rafters, repaired chimneys, and restored the original appearance of the sgraffito and other decorations. Attics were renovated, and cellars were repaired as well. The Arch building is approximately 250 meters long. During the repairs, it was necessary to renovate over 12,600 square meters of façade and more than 4,350 square meters of roofs. A total of 114 sgraffito were also restored. "The sgraffito were in varying degrees of damage. It always depended on which side faced the wind; there were damaged downspouts, so in those areas there was biological damage. Of course, bird droppings, the urban environment, and the associated dust and dirt played their part. The sgraffito were in various conditions, but what was important was that they were repetitive. It took us a long time to come up with the system in which they were repeated," restorer Markéta Müllerová explained.

In the end, it turned out that there are 26 types of sgraffito on the site. The restorers managed to uncover the system of their not entirely typical alternation, which subsequently helped them during the restoration. "Since out of the total 114, there were 26 types, we always knew what it looked like, because somewhere the top was preserved, and elsewhere the bottom. So we made templates that we then used to supplement entire sgraffito or their fragments," the restorer added. The only different place was the sgraffito above the Arch's passage. "They are completely different, they are square and not arched. If you focus on it, the motifs are still plant-based, but here, only in this spot, there is always some socialist motif, there is a five-pointed star, crossed miner's hammers, and a dove," said Müllerová.

It is exactly in this place that people can also find a small reference to the present. "There is a place where there is a small coat of arms; we didn't know what was in it, so we left a trace of us there in agreement with the representative of the heritage institute," Müllerová said. People will see three exclamation marks there, which are the logo of Ostrava. Among the interesting features of the building is a renovated underground shelter, of which there was originally several in the Arch; only one smaller version remains.

All 11 entrances owned by the district have received a new appearance. The twelfth, a house with a tower, is owned by a housing cooperative and has not been renovated. According to the mayor, the district tried to reach an agreement with the cooperative and offered various assistance, including an interest-free loan, but could not find common ground. The municipal district also had the area around the building repaired and wants to have the road behind the Arch reconstructed next year.