Register of modern architecture oA HÚ SAV

The Jewish businessman Alexander Wohl founded the company "Vegetabil - velkoobchod s léčivými rostlinami, lesními plodinami a ovocem” (Vegetabil – wholesale of medicinal plants, forest crops and fruit) in Hanušovce nad Topľou, which in the times of the First Czechoslovak Republic dried medicinal plants gathered in the area by local inhabitants. He first built a small brick drying room directly behind his house, but it soon became insufficient.

His new wooden drying house, measuring approximately 6 x 18 metres, was built by local carpenters and had an oak supporting structure. There are three floors and an attic in the drying house. The roof was covered with tin roofing. The wooden facade consists of vertically laid wooden boards with a pointed end. The floors are slightly offset from one another, which creates a characteristic distinctive element on the facade. The three floors consist of indoor halls with an elaborate drying system. The herbs lay on sliding platforms – sieves that were stacked tightly on top of each other and slid out like drawers. The drying sieves had different meshes depending on the plant being dried on them. The intensity of the air flow was regulated through ventilation windows. This drying system was operated by one person using a lever mechanism. In order to protect the herbs from the sun, the building had only very small openings protected by a metal mesh. The simple, functional wooden building is a unique technical monument and reflects the rich history of plant drying in the region. At present (2021) the drying house is not in use.

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