This First-Republic villa in a traditionalist idiom, influenced by the aesthetics of the German Heimatstil, was designed for Josef Barták (1892–1987) by the Opava architect Karl Gottwald (1884–?). The symmetrical two-storey building on a stone plinth with a pronounced hipped roof is dominated by a powerful portico sheltering elegant dark-wood doors set in an artificial-stone surround. Numerous small windows of varying shapes were intended to bring out the intimacy of family life; those on the upper floor originally had shutters. At the centre of the interior is a square stair hall panelled in wood.
After training as a shop assistant in Opava, Josef Barták became manager of the Hlučín branch of the Silesian Trading Cooperative and was among the town’s respected citizens. He had his villa built on a previously undeveloped street near the grammar school, in an area planned as one of Hlučín’s new residential quarters. A garage was attached to the villa on the left from the outset. The house is surrounded by a large garden, into which it opens with a conservatory and a first-floor belvedere loggia.
After February 1948, the villa was confiscated and used as a nursery school. It was not returned to the family until after the Velvet Revolution. Numerous artisanal features and original details survive inside. It ranks among the most remarkable villas in the region.
