One of my favorite buildings in Zagreb is Croatian National Theatre. Surrounded by beautiful green grass, flowers and a lot of benches where you can sit a relax. There's also very nice caffe Tac, but I'll write about it in one of my next posts. Croatian National Theatre is on the Marshal Tito Square. It's surrounded by numerous buildings of high monumental value from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
Today, I'm going to tell you few details about building of Theatre.
On May 22, 1894 more than 200 worker began the construction of Croatian National Theatre. After four months, the building was under the roof and the interior works began. The ceremonial curtain is painted by Vlaho Bukovac – The Reformation of Croatian Literature and Art, today known under the title Croatian Reformation.
The construction was progressing according to plan and after sixteen months, on October 8, 1895, the building received its certificate of occupancy.
The theatre was ceremoniously opened on October 14, 1895, when at 2 pm the emperor Franz Joseph I on a balcony column before numerous citizens of Zagreb and people from other Croatian regions, symbolically performed the final blow with a silver hammer that was sculpted for that occasion by Robert Franges Mihanovic.
The first ceremonial performance in the new building was held in the presence of the emperor and numerous dignitaries at 7 pm – The Glory of Art, an allegorical ‘stage prologue in three scenes’ by Stjepan Miletic with music by Ivan noble Zajc in which principals of Drama and Ballet participated and the eighth scene from the opera Nikola Subic Zrinjski by Ivan noble Zajc.
In 115 years of its existence the building of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb underwent two renovations. The first one was between May 18 and October 14, 1937 when only the technical equipment was reconstructed and the only complete construction renovation until today commenced on February 1, 1967 and was completed for the ceremonial opening on November 27, 1969.
The western wing of the building of Kolo, erected for the needs of the theatre during its construction, was also renovated and connected with the main Croatian National Theatre building with an underground tunnel below the Hebrang Street.
In front of the Theatre you can find Well of Life made by Croatian sculptor and architect Ivan Mestrovic. It was set up on this location in 1912.
Do you like it?