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Axmann's hotel in Orahovica
Daniel Zec
Sažetak
According to the plan made by Osijek architect Viktor Axmann (1878 - 1946) the hotel in Orahovica was built in 1906 in a typical art nouveau style.
The supervisor of the construction work on the hotel was Ivan Domes, a civil engineer with who Axmann just then started cooperating.
The hotel was erected in the period of rapid economic growth in Orahovica in the beginning of the 20th century for the Jewish merchant Leopold Spitzer and it carried his name in the beginning.
The hotel is characterised by its good position in the city. It is an elongated one floor building with a distinguished convex lateral façade. The front façade carries art nouveau features expressed by architectural sculpture and ornaments. Decorative effect of the façade is enhanced by the contrast in the structure of the wall surface (tactile treatment of the wall surface by the use of plaster of rough texture is contrasted with smooth wall surfaces) as well as the use of various materials, such as characteristic ceramic tiles which create peculiar decorative patterns in higher parts of the façade.
These motifs (squares arranged to form a triangle) are symbolic of freemasons’ signs which Viktor Axmann, being a member of a Masonic lodge himself, planned as an integral part of the building.
Comparative examples of the Orahovica hotel can be found in the architectural oeuvre of Viktor Axmann in
Osijek. The best comparative analysis can be made by comparing the hotel to the Vranesic house in Strossmayerova Street in Osijek (1918) which represents a variant of the Orahovica project from 1906. Other comparative examples are the administrative building of the factory of matches in Osijek (1908), and to some extent the Cacinovic house (1906) and the Stanetty house (1910).
Preserved Axmann’s construction plans as well as aborted plans made by Osijek architect W. C. Hofbauer were used in covering this topic. The paper represents a contribution to the research of Axmann’s oeuvre: numerous Axmann’s projects outside Osijek have not been dealt with scientifically or mentioned in literature on architecture. That is exactly the reason why it is necessary to completely cover left out Axmann’s architectural works “in the provinces” and in that way try to more thoroughly do research into the work of this architect.
The paper also brings forth an analysis of the current state of the hotel and describes the process of its renovation (renovation and rebuilding of the hotel started in 2004). Emergence of art nouveau elements on other buildings in Orahovica has been shortly covered in the paper.
The hotel in Orahovica has not so far been researched in detail, and it has been very concisely presented in expert literature.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
160556
URI
Datum izdavanja:
5.12.2007.
Posjeta: 1.479 *