120-Year-Old Photos of Construction of Famous Croatian National Theatre Exhibited

An exhibition displaying historical photographs, documents, films and digital posters marking the 120th anniversary of the opening of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb opens today…

The exhibition will evoke the history of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb (HNK), which is a major landmark of the city, from its earliest period until the construction of the new building in 1895.

The exhibition will focus on the construction of today’s building in Zagreb: from the very idea to its opening on October 14, 1895, when with a symbolic strike with a silver hammer on the stone of a balcony pole the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph declared the theatre opened.

Part of the exhibition will document the period from June 10, 1840 when the Domorodno teatralno društvo (Patriotic theatrical society) with its ceremonious performance of the first theatre play in the Stokavian dialect Junačke igre u tri čina Jurana i Sofije by Ivan Kukuljevic Sakcinski official commenced its appearances in Zagreb, Sisak and Karlovac. Their first appearance was at the Old Theatre on St. Mark’s Square and lasted 18 months during which they gave fifty different original and translated works, in total 200 performances.

Two documentary films Die Fellner und Helmer – Story and Die vergessenen des eoropäischen Theaterbaus will be shown at the exhibition and a documentary movie about the HNK building itself.

Visitors will be able to see the original materials relating to the building and its opening: blueprints, documents relating to building permits posters, invitations, the silver hammer created by sculptor Robert Franges Mihanovic with which emperor Franz Joseph symbolically ended the construction of the HNK building, photographs …and many other original artefacts from the time. (HNK)