The stained glass windows designed by Józef Mehoffer for the Grauer family chapel in Opava rank among the most valuable examples of early Art Nouveau in Polish art, and are one of the few surviving in situ works by the artist located outside Poland. The ensemble of six windows, completed in 1901, represents a mature work combining the spiritual dimension of modernist symbolism with the compositional precision rooted in medieval models and Mehoffer’s own study of the Gothic. It also stands as a rare testament to his ability to elevate stained glass to the rank of monumental painting, while preserving its organic relationship with architecture and light.

The Context of the Chapel and the Commission

The chapel was founded by Emil Grauer, a member of a well-known Opava family of industrialists and a representative of the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Built between 1898 and 1901 in the new municipal cemetery, the structure is a typical example of a neo-Gothic family mausoleum. Constructed of light stone, with slender proportions, high gables, pointed window arches, and pinnacled decoration, it reflects the aesthetics of the late nineteenth century, when sentimental historicism intertwined with the need for modern commemoration.

The chapel’s interior was modest, almost ascetic-its sole adornment was meant to be a cycle of six stained glass windows. The commission was given to Józef Mehoffer, then a professor at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, already renowned for his experience in Fribourg and his collaboration with the Żeleński stained-glass workshop. In Opava, Mehoffer was able to fully realize his concept of a sepulchral stained glass-one that not only illustrates truths of faith but also transports the viewer into the realm of contemplation and metaphysical light.

Architecture and Iconographic Scheme

The chapel contains four tall, slender windows in the side walls and two larger ones in the gables, all filled with tracery. Together, they form a coherent narrative about the soul’s passage from earthly life to eternity. On the left are The Dormition of Mary and At Christ’s Tomb; on the right-Faith, Hope, and Charity (also known as The Soul at the Gates of Paradise) and Caritas. Above the entrance is The Angel of Eternal Light, while the opposite gable holds The Archangel of the Last Judgment. Mehoffer arranged the windows in thematic pairs-each corresponds to the one opposite-creating an eschatological and theologically coherent whole: from death and burial, through the salvific virtues, to the triumph of light and the final judgment.

The side windows are framed by pointed arches with round finials. The figural scenes occupy the central fields, set within stylized architecture, canopies, and ornamental friezes. The most distinctive decorative elements are the monumental pansies running in bands across the upper and lower sections of the windows. Their naturalistic forms, enlarged to superhuman scale, create the aura of a mystical garden in which visions of heaven and resurrection unfold. The ornamentation also features thistle leaves-symbols of suffering and purification, traditionally associated in Christian art with penance. The precision of line, the flowing Art Nouveau contour, and the rhythmic modulation of light combine to give the cycle its unique visual pulse.

Form and Color

Trained in the academic tradition of painting, Mehoffer approached stained glass as a painterly medium whose true substance is light itself. In the Opava cycle he achieved an exceptional harmony of color. Dominant are tones of purple, deep blue, and emerald green, balanced by streams of golden light and transparent whites. Color here is not mere decoration-it is a spiritual medium through which the mystery of passage is revealed.

In Faith, Hope, and Charity, a dead woman lies below, her soul ascending above her in the form of a child with iridescent wings. Three female figures at the gates of paradise personify the theological virtues. The motif of the gate-symbol of the threshold between earthly and divine realms-serves as the compositional and spiritual axis. Architectural framing with columns and entablatures reinforces this boundary, while the warm, radiant palette illuminates the scene as if heralding resurrection.

In the adjacent window Caritas, Mehoffer depicted love not as a sentimental gesture of compassion but as an immense spiritual force. A woman embracing two children, bathed in a halo of red and gold, embodies divine love capable of embracing suffering and sacrifice. The contrast between this vision and the subtlety of The Soul at the Gates of Paradise reveals the artist’s extraordinary emotional range. Both windows represent the apogee of Mehoffer’s symbolism, where feeling and light merge into one.

Symbolism and Spirituality

The conceptual framework of the Opava windows is rooted in deep theological and iconographic knowledge. The entire cycle is a meditation on death understood not as an end but as a passage into “the world of eternal bliss.” The juxtaposition of Christ’s tomb and Mary’s Dormition with personifications of the theological virtues creates a closed circle of salvation. The light passing through the colored glass becomes a metaphor of grace.

As in his Fribourg windows, Mehoffer treated light as the language of revelation: every shift in intensity animates different parts of the composition, making the work dynamic and alive. Thus, the artist transcended the boundary between image and spiritual experience.

Art Nouveau and Gothic Dialogue

The form of the Opava windows demonstrates Mehoffer’s delicate balance between Gothic inspiration and modern Art Nouveau style. Rather than merely imitating medieval models, he reinterpreted them-borrowing the vertical rhythm and structural division from the Gothic, and the softness of line, organic shapes, and floral ornament from Art Nouveau. The result is a work both profoundly modern and deeply spiritual, reflecting an era that saw sacred art not merely as an expression of faith but as a means of seeking meaning in a time of civilizational change.

Opava thus became the site where a Polish artist created a work of European stature-one that unites tradition with modernity, mysticism with decoration.

Technical and Workshop Aspects

The stained glass was executed by the Kraków workshop of F. Białkowski and W. Skibiński, with whom Mehoffer collaborated on many projects. Their craftsmanship enabled the complex play of light and shade. The artist supervised each stage of production, personally selecting glass and directing the painting of contours, demonstrating his understanding of the material’s optical qualities. By using transparent and semi-transparent glass of varying thickness, Mehoffer achieved the illusion of moving light that changes with the time of day. This gives the Opava windows their living quality-their colors never appear the same twice, and the chapel becomes a pulsating, luminous organism.

Postwar Fate and Modern Conservation

By the 1990s, the Grauer family mausoleum was in poor condition, and two of the stained glass windows had been stolen. In 2008, after the chapel was taken over by the city of Opava, restoration work began. The original windows were deposited in the Office for State Property and underwent conservation. In 2015, the city authorities, in cooperation with conservators, reconstructed the damaged structure, reinforcing it with metal ties and recreating details in Supíkovice marble. The reconstruction cost over three million Czech crowns.

Due to the exceptional artistic value of the originals and the risk of theft, the windows were not reinstalled; faithful replicas were placed in their stead. The originals are to be displayed publicly in the exhibition spaces of the Opava Municipal House.

Two of the windows-Faith, Hope, and Charity and Caritas-survive in Poland as author’s replicas made before 1905 in the Białkowski and Skibiński workshop. For many years they adorned the artist’s apartment at Krupnicza Street in Kraków; today they are housed in the Józef Mehoffer House, a branch of the National Museum in Kraków. These replicas allow viewers to fully appreciate the finesse of color and drawing that can now be sensed in the Opava chapel only indirectly.

Significance in Mehoffer’s Oeuvre and in the History of Stained Glass

The Opava cycle is one of Mehoffer’s earliest fully original stained glass ensembles and a prelude to his greatest achievement-the monumental windows in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Fribourg. Compared with those, the Opava compositions are more intimate and contemplative, yet reveal the same conception of light and color as spiritual essences. As Adam Żeleński observed, Mehoffer never limited himself to design alone-he worked closely with glassmakers, overseeing each stage to draw out the full expressive power of the material.

For Mehoffer, stained glass was a form of total painting-a synthesis of line, color, architecture, and light.

The work from Opava can also be seen as a testimony to cultural dialogue: a Polish artist creating in a Czech city a cycle that merges Catholic iconography with the European aesthetics of modernism. At a time when national art was increasingly emphasizing boundaries, Mehoffer spoke in a universal, spiritual, and transnational language. For this reason, his Opava windows-despite their local context-belong within the broader current of European Art Nouveau, alongside the works of Koloman Moser, Eugène Grasset, and Franz von Stuck.

The Grauer Chapel in Opava, with Mehoffer’s stained glass ensemble, is a place where the material structure of stone and the immaterial radiance of light unite. In this fusion lies the essence of modernist spirituality-the belief in art as a means of grasping the mystery of life and death. Today, more than a century later, these windows continue to fascinate not only by their artistic mastery but also by the freshness of their idea: death here is not an end, but a gate through which one passes into light.

In Opava, Mehoffer created a work of extraordinary emotional power, combining the rational order of the Gothic with the flowing line of Art Nouveau, metaphysics with painterly sensuality. His only surviving work in the Czech lands remains one of the most beautiful manifestations of European modernism.