Hotel „Austria“
Hotel „Austria“
Hotel „Austria“, izgrađen 1890. godine uz metkovsku Glavnu ulicu, drugi je najstariji hotel na hrvatskoj obali. Stariji je samo hotel „Kvarner“ u Opatiji koji je podignut šest godina prije. Otvorenje hotela „Austria“ ukazuje na važnost koju je Metković, usporedno s povećanjem interesa austrijskih vlasti za Bosnu i Hercegovinu, postupno stjecao od početka druge polovice 19. stoljeća.
Građevina je izvorno dvokatnica, jednostavne tlocrtne osnove, sa zrcalno simetričnim pročeljem okrenutim ulici. Ono se ističe jednostavnim historicističkim karakteristikama i skromnim ukrasom: polukružnim lukovima u prizemlju, podjelom etaža vijencima, profiliranjem prozora prvoga kata i stiliziranom trabeacijom na vrhu (arhitravna greda, friz s okulusima, istureni završni vijenac).
Austria Hotel
The Austria hotel, built in 1890 along the Metković Main Road (Glavna ulica), is the second oldest hotel on the Croatian coastline. Only the Kvarner hotel in Opatija is older; it was built six years earlier. The opening of the Austria hotel points to the importance that Metković, in parallel with the increased interest of the Austrian authorities for Bosnia and Herzegovina, gradually acquired from the start of the second half of the 19th century.
The building was originally a two-story structure, of a simple ground floor base, with a mirror symmetrical front turned towards the street. It stands out by its simple historicist features and delicate ornament: semi-circular arches in the ground floor, divisions of the stories by crests, by profiling the first floor windows and stylised trabeation at the top (architrave beam, frieze with oculi, a protruding final crest).
The interior was divided into a restaurant, café, booth, kitchen and sixteen guest rooms. They were connected with the ground floor by stairs in stone with an iron rail. The hotel was also one of the early centres of entertainment and cultural life in the town. Dances were often organised there, and the first owner, Mato Gluščević, not long after the construction of the hotel, ensured a space for the renovated Croatian Neretva library. The third floor, of smaller dimensions, was added around 1918. Nowadays, the building has a residential function.