The Austria Hotel
From the Hunting Palace we go through St. Melchior Grodziecki Square, Zamkowa street and we reach the main old town artery, Głęboka street, where, in the times of the monarchy, the most elegant shops, stores, wine taverns and coffee houses were situated. The former Austria Hotel (25 Głęboka Street) reminds us of the royal and imperial past. The Austria Hotel 25 Głęboka street
In the eighties of the 19th century, at the corner of Archduchess Stephanie’s street (today 25 Głęboka street) and Browarna street, Franz Stiller arranged a chic café and restaurant in place of the old, onestoreyed Mendrok Inn and covered it with kind of mansard roof. In the next decade he transformed it into one of the biggest and the most renowned hotels in town. It received the name ‘Austria’ that appealed to the first rate tradition of the Austrian gastronomy and hotel industry. It was a classicist, three-storey building with its façade facing Głęboka street, whereas the side wall, and the longer one, was on Browarna street. The restaurant and café were situated in the front. They were arranged according to the best Viennese models. So nobody in Cieszyn was surprised that the modern (in those days) hotel on the main town artery became a favourite stopping place for archduke Eugen, Cieszyn Duke Friedrich’s brother, who was stationed in Cieszyn. In 1888 this young, barely 25- year-old major Eugen was delegated to the Cieszyn garrison. He was soon promoted lieutenant-colonel, and, in 1890 – colonel and commander of the Cieszyn infantry regiment (number 100). The Archduke had the soul of an artist and he liked to surround himself with people of science and art. Therefore in his residence in the ‘Hunting Palace’ he created a small ‘court’, called ‘Cieszyn Wartburg’ where he found rest after the monotony of military tasks. There he created his own home orchestra that comprised five musicians from the local military orchestra. He even had one of the rooms of the castle brewery adapted as a concert hall with a stage where artists brought from Vienna as well as local musicians played difficult operas by Wagner. Eugen, too, inspired the cultural life of Cieszyn by meeting the local élite on the premises of the ‘Austria’ hotel. At the end of 1890 the owner of the hotel, Franciszek Stiller, started to erect a special extension at the rear part of the hotel (from Browarna street), which was meant to become a concert hall that could accommodate a few hundred people. Józef Motyka, a Cieszyn builder, started the building process – according to his own plans. Due to his illness it was Albert Dostal who finished it. When, at the end of October 1891, the hall was nearly finished, the Archduke Eugen himself visited it and it was then that he agreed to the concert hall being named after him. It was then, too, that he was appointed Commander of the 13th regiment of Hussars in Peszt. Therefore the formal opening of the hall took place with the Archduke absent, on the 29th of December 1891. The inaugural concert was given by the orchestra of the 100th infantry regiment from Cieszyn.
The hall of 260 square metres, with a ten meter ceiling and capable of accommodating 450 people, immediately became the pride of the hotel. What filled people with admiration was the rich interior decorations, i.e. the paneling and the upholstery made by Jan Pohlner’s firm from Cieszyn and paintings in the style of the Italian renaissance done by Paweł Niedoba’s painting firm to whom Paweł’s talented brother Karol, then a student of the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts, gave a lending hand. Archduke Eugen was remembered by his bust carved by the sculptor Jan Raszka and a commemorating plaque, made of black marble, with an inscription in German that read: ‘Seine k.u.k. Hoheit Erzherzog Eugen besuchte am 26. October 1891 diesen Saal und geruhte, denselben nach höchst Seinem Namen Erzherzog Eugen Saal benennen zu dürfen.’ (‘His Emperor and Royal Highness archduke Eugen visited, on October 26th 1891, this hall and consented to this hall being named The Archduke Eugen Hall’). As a matter of fact, the Archduke himself during his journey from Peszt to Vienna on April 26th, 1892, visited the ‘Austria’ hotel and in the room named after him he organized a grand celebration for 80 officers from the Cieszyn garrison and guests invited from Hungary.
For a long time ‘The Archduke Eugen Hall’ played the function of the only concert hall in Cieszyn. Every Saturday and Sunday artistic performances took place here, and also balls, picnics and different charity events. Thanks to this hall the hotel was considered to be one of the best in town and it could, from 1914, pass itself off as ‘Grand-Hotel Austria’. Józef Piłsudski was the most renowned guest of the ‘Austria’ hotel at the beginning of the First World War. He organized the First Brigade of the Polish Regiment in 1914 still under the Austrian wing. In his customary manner he wore a modest legionary uniform without any military insignias. When Polish officers saluted him while standing at attention, the Austrian staff officers and hotel guests were stirred and agitated.
Today in the former hotel building there are offices and a big shop with cosmetics. The plaque commemorating archduke Eugen found its place in the Cieszyn Museum, whereas in the façade of the building a plaque commemorating Józef Piłsudski was unveiled in 1999.
Photographs: Dominik Dubiel, Paweł Halama, Daniel Hryciuk, Magdalena Jańczuk, Renata Karpińska, Mariusz Makowski, Joanna Rzepka-Dziedzic, Anna Szostok-Fedrizzi, Henryk Tesarczyk
Translation from Polish: Lucyna Krzanowska and John Whitewood
Reproductions of exhibits, documents and photographs from the collections of:
- Museum of Cieszyn Silesia in Cieszyn,
- Cieszyn Historical Library,
- Cieszyn Branch of the State Archive in Katowice,
- Cieszyn Town Council,
- Museum of Beskidy in Frýdek-Mistek,
- private collection of Mariusz Makowski
- H. Wawreczka, J. Spyra, M. Makowski, ‘Cieszyn i Czeski Cieszyn na starych widokówkach i fotografiach’, WART, Nebory 1999