The first president of the Bukowina Chamber of Commerce and Industry was Wilhelm von Alth, a district pharmacist, and the secretary was Andreas Mikulicz-Radecki, a master builder from the Kamenice region and the father of the famous surgeon Johann von Mikulicz-Radecki. According to the imperial decree, the communes were to take care of the premises of the Chambers of Commerce and Trade. In Chernivtsi, the office of the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry was located first in the Town Hall and later in the building of the Industrial Museum.
It was not until 1906 that the construction of a separate building for the Bukovina Chamber of Commerce and Industry was put out to tender. The tender was won by a young architect from Chernivtsi, Friedrich Gottesmann. Construction began in 1907 on a vacant lot in Elisabeth Square (now Teatralʾa plošča 2). The exterior of the opulent five-storey building was decorated with sculptures and numerous mosaics by the Viennese sculptor Hermann Vinzenz Heller.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry occupied the first two floors of the building, while the two upper floors were residential units. At the bottom right of the ground floor was the Emperor's Café - with a summer terrace - which was run as the Astoria Café during the Romanian period.
On 6 December 1909, the building of the Bukovina Chamber of Commerce and Industry was officially opened. The Austrian Minister of Trade, Dr Weißkirchner attended the opening, 'accompanied by the Head of Section, Dr Brosche, the Ministerial Councillor, Dr Prandtner, and the Ministerial Secretary, Löwenfeld. Nikolai von Wassilko, Hofrat Dr Skedl and Baron Dr Hormuzaki arrived from Vienna in the same train'. (Czernowitzer Allgemeine Zeitung, 7 December 1909, p. 1). The building of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry survived almost intact. Today it houses the Chernivtsi Medical University.
Text: Kateryna Stetsevych
Sources:
- Allgemeine Bauzeitung 1911 (76. Jg.), Tafeln 22-26.
