‘The Russet Deer’ Hotel
On leaving the Town Hall, on the right hand side, we can see ‘The Russet Deer’ Hotel, Rynek 20, 20 Market Square
The building of ‘The Russet Deer Hotel’ was erected in place of two market estates that were built at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, i.e. at the time when the present Market Square came into being. In the building at the corner of the Market Square and Regera street there was a copper tradingpost, and then the Office for salt and tobacco tax. In the middle of the 18th century it became the property of noble families, i.e. the Larisch Counts and the Karwiński and the Cselesta barons. At that time in the building there was already a hotel called ‘The Deer’, or, ‘The Russet Deer.’ It was run by different entrepreneurs called ‘gospodzki’. From its beginnings ‘The Deer’ received a lot of celebrities and royalty, among others: Duke Repnin, Czar Paul I, Duke Condé and Marie- Thérèse, the daughter of King Louis XVI, together with French immigrants after the Revolution, and also Czar Alexander I, Grand duke Constantine, general Kutuzow, Emperor Ferdinand and Cieszyn duke Karl Ludwig Habsburg. Two big plaques, with their names on, placed in the hotel foyer, called the fact to mind. However, the most magnificent and one of the first guests of that rank was the Emperor Joseph II himself, who stayed in the hotel twice, in 1770 and 1779. In the first half of the 19th century the building came into the hands of townspeople, at first the Kamprath family and, from 1876, to the Seemann family.
The hotel business was run by different leaseholders. In the late eighties of the 19th century the building was remodelled according to the architect Albert Dostal’s design in such a way so as to fulfill the requirements of more and more numerous clients. It was then that the second floor was added and a horse omnibus was launched, bringing guests from the Pruchna railway station at first, and then from Saska Kępa. However, these investments were not sufficient in the face of the development of the railway and tourist business at the end of the 19th century. Also, ‘The Deer’ could not compete with the ‘Austria’ hotel at Stefanii street (today’s Głęboka). Then in 1910 a Cieszyn builder Ludwik Kametz made a suggestion to build a modern hotel ‘The Russet Deer’ in place of the old one and the neighbouring town-house. He set up a partnership called ‘Hotel Brauner Hirsch GmbH in Teschen’ ( ‘The Russet Deer’ hotel, limited liability company in Cieszyn) that consisted of a group of well-to-do townspeople who bought the old hotel from Edward Seemann and the neighbouring town-house from the Scholtis family. The designs for the large new structure were made in 1911 by a Viennese architect, Kilian Köhler. In this way the most magnificent structure among those surrounding the Market was erected. It was taller and more substantial than all the others. The five-storey building got Art Nouveau decoration with rococo stylistics that corresponded to fashionable Viennese patterns. The entresol with semicircular windows, where a restaurant and café, accessible to everyone, was situated, was marked with mouldings of rustic work. The entrances, arranged symmetrically between attached columns, led to the hotel and the café. On the first floor there was an elegant suite giving onto a balcony with a wrought-iron railing. The windows were embellished with stucco work and curved mouldings. The fronton, emphasizing the symmetry of the façade, was topped with similar moulding. The fronton was embellished with a low relief representing a reclining deer (made of russet stoneware) in a neo-rococo cartouche. The building was covered with a high mansard roof topped with a wrought iron grating with the name of the hotel.
The formal opening of the hotel took place on the 29th and the 30th of June, 1912. The three floors comprised 67 hotel rooms with socalled English bathrooms, central heating, fridges, a lift, electric light, and ventilation. The hotel was fitted according to the most modern Viennese patterns and the Capital’s chic. On the ground floor were the following, all furnished luxuriously in Art Nouveau style: a café, a drawing- room for ladies, a restaurant, a concert and ball rooms, a winter skittle-alley, and special club rooms for meetings of different Cieszyn Associations. The restaurant specialized in traditional Viennese cuisine, and the café served cakes and desserts that were typical of Austria, with the indispensable coffee made in a number of different ways. There were performances of Viennese artists and those from other cultural centres of the Monarchy in the concert room almost every day. For the clients’ convenience a renowned imperial court hairdresser’s, i.e. Franciszek Hermann’s hairdresser’s, was there. And a beauty parlour. Although the hotel quickly filled with travellers, the managing company fell into financial trouble, that was aggravated by the outbreak of World War I. Despite all this, not only social and cultural, but also political life (extending beyond the region), concentrated in the hotel. During the war, 1914-1916, the hotel was occupied by high officers of the General Staff of the Army. In the hotel’s rooms the Archduke Friedrich, being the commanderin- chief of the Austrian Army, received the most important politicians and military men of the so-called Central Powers. Among them were the Emperor Wilhelm II and the King of Bulgaria, Ferdinand. After the end of the war, from the middle of February 1919, the hotel was the premises of the Interallied Committee of the Allies, whose aim was to arbitrate the border argument between Poland and Czechoslovakia and then, from the end of January 1920 – the Interallied Plebiscite Committee. It ceased to function with the signing, on August 20th 1920, the Protocol of acceptance of the state border on the Olza river by the representatives of the Polish and Czech governments. Those were the last years of prosperity for ‘The Deer’. The division of Cieszyn made its plight even worse. The town which had been lively before and had been visited by clients from all over the Danube Monarchy now lost its natural base. Even Ignacy Mościcki’s (the President of the Republic of Poland) visits in 1927 and 1929 did not help. The hotel continued to function, at first as a private enterprise in the period between the two wars and as a ‘socialized’ institution after the 2nd World War. Regained by its former owners in 1990, it was sold and ceased to function because of preservation and renovation work. Now, not in use, it is waiting for its new host.
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