The shoe factory on Mládežnícka Street in Banská Štiavnica was established by Žigmund Brettschneider in 1895. Its longitudinal axis is parallel to Dolná Street and at the same time, its front facade is oriented towards it. The side facade is oriented towards the Mládežnícka Street. The former factory building has an L-shaped floor plan and was the first one to be built within the street terraced housing development on a gently sloping ground. The interior layout of the building has two tracts.
The factory consists of a one-storey production part and a superstructured two-storey part which was originally used for administrative purposes. Up to 80 employees used to work in the factory and it was in operation until 1919, when its premises were converted into flats. The ground-floor building, done in an eclectic style, housed a production area, dressing rooms and a storage area. The interior retains the original coffered doors and glazed partitions with original fittings. The two-storey, two-tract building has a richly decorated main facade with preserved architectural elements (pilasters, banded bossing, sub-window cornices, over-window arches) with ten window axes. The higher building is three-storeyed from the Dolná Street side, having facades with three window axes.
The shoe factory is situated near other manufacture buildings from the period of the town's expansion at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Together with the former sheep cheese (bryndza) factory, founded by Artur Erdös in 1919, they form an integrated complex through a common courtyard (with the original 18th-century paving).
Bibliography:
KLAKOVÁ, Oľga. Návrh na vyhlásenie veci za kultúrnu pamiatku, Banská Štiavnica – Brettschneiderova továreň na obuv. Národné pamiatkové a krajinné centrum 1997, Bratislava.
