The House Under The Arcades

Address: Žižkova 2/25, Zábřeh, 789 01

Working hours: Tue -Sun 9:00 – 12:00 12:30-17:00

The House Under the Arcades is a genuine curiosity – not only as a document of town period architecture. Among other things, it is the family house of Magdalena Vizovska, a native of Zabreh and the first wife of Jan Amos Komensky. The building currently houses a museum. In addition to valuable documents which enable visitors to look back into the town´s eventful history, the museum has an exhibition on the life of Jan Eskymo Welzl, another famous native, whose name went far beyond the frontiers of the Region.

The House Under the Arcades was built on the site of two medieval houses, which were joined into one building during Renaissance remodelling in the 16th century. The preserved structures indicated that it was a ceremonial building with official rooms, a „black kitchen“ on the courtyard side, a ground floor and a high parapet. Towards the end of the 16th century further Renaissance alteration took place, during which a tower with an arcade was added, and a separate wing in the courtyard. The fasade of the building was decorated with a diamond pattern. Renaissance remodelling and rebuilding has been preserved in the building, and there are numerous decorative  features, including a portal, a window on the fasade and decorative vaulting in the interior. These details remain to this day and represent a monument of significant value in the town. The first floor of the building was built on in the 18th century, making use of the Renaissance parapet. The rooms had beam and plank floor ceilings. The fasade of the tower was created in its current form in the Rococo period, around the first half of the 18th century. A certain technical refinement of the interior was added in the Classical period and the fasade was likewise altered. Extensive reconstruction was carried out in the building, during which the historical significance of the building was respected as much as possible.

Text is from book 750 years of Zabreh.