Stankovićevo kazalište The first professional theater in Zagreb was built in 1834 by Zagreb wholesaler and landowner Kristofor Stanković, who in 1833 won the grand prize of 30,000 ducats in the
Vienna lottery and decided to build a theater building as a private investment. The theatre evolved out of the first city theatre opened in 1834, housed in the present-day
Old City Hall, in the
Upper Town. The building was designed by Italian architects, father and son Christofor and Anton Cragnolini, who were engaged in building the
Ljubljana national theatre, in the neoclassical style. The first play,
Niklas Graf von Zriny by Körner, was performed by a German troupe on 4 October 1834. As part of the theatre, there was also a ballroom, where the
Croatian Parliament sat in 1848. The upper town theatre was the centre of the city's theatrical and cultural life and its capacity was sufficient for the population of the time (more than 750 seats), but the theatre was not technically adequately equipped. A curtain was painted on by Croatian painter
Vjekoslav Karas painting. It was lit by candles, gas in 1864, and electricity in 1894. German and Italian troupes performed, and from 1860, with the expulsion of German actors, only Croatian plays were performed. The building was damaged in the
1880 Zagreb earthquake. In 1881, the Croatian Parliament adopted a law on the construction of a new theatre.
Fellner-Helmer theatre A fundraising campaign began in April 1880, with member of Parliament Marijan Derenčin submitted a detailed petition to the Government about the need to construct a new building and commissioned designs from Viennese architects specialising in theater construction,
Hermann Helmer and
Ferdinand Fellner, who often worked together under
Fellner & Helmer, building theatres all around
Europe. The Croatian Parliament passes the Law on the Construction of the New National Theatre in Zagreb, which is confirmed by Emperor
Franz Joseph I on 31 October. The new Croatian Ban
Károly Khuen-Héderváry renews discussions about the location, and includes
Izidor Kršnjavi in construction. In 1895, the city's authorities debate on the location, and their debate is interrupted by Khuen-Héderváry's decision to build the future theater on the site of the city fairgrounds, despite the resistance at the time, as it was on the city outskirts, further from the then city centre. In autumn 1893, the Viennese architectural firm
Fellner & Helmer submitted a new project, and on 5 January a contract was signed for the construction of the new theatre building. The works were about to begin in spring 1894 and completed by 1 October 1895. The initial scepticism of the location of the new theatre turned out better than expected, and the building was built on today's
Republic of Croatia Square which is surrounded by numerous buildings of high monumental value from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ,
HPD Kolo as well as extra HNK facilities is in the background. On 22 May 1894, more than two hundred workers began construction. Within four months, the building was under a roof and interior work began. The ceremonial curtain for the new theater was made by
Vlaho Bukovac -
Preporod hrvatske književnosti I umjetnosti, today known as . The paintings on the ceiling of the auditorium were done by the Viennese painter and decorator
Alexander Demetrius Goltz. The ceiling of the foyer on the first floor is by
Ivan Tišov, which were applied in 1911.
Stjepan Miletić was the first intendant of the Croatian National Theatre, who would take up his duties at the beginning of the 1894–95 season. The theatre was first established as the Croatian National Theatre in 1860. In 1861, it gained government support, putting it on par with many other European national theatres. An opera company was added to the theatre in 1870, and moved to the new purpose-built building on
Republic of Croatia Square in Zagreb's
Lower Town in 1875, where it is based today. There are also four busts of
Ivan Gundulić and
Junij Palmotić from the front of the building,
Dimitrije Demeter on the east side and
Vatroslav Lisinski on the west side of the building. The theatre officially opened on 14 November 1895. Austro-Hungarian emperor
Franz Joseph I was at the unveiling of this new building during his
visit to the city in 1895. The first ceremonial performance, also in the presence of the emperor and numerous guests, was held in the new building on the same day at 7 PM titled
Slava umjetnosti, and was an allegorical stage prologue in three scenes by
Stjepan Miletić with music by
Ivan Zajc, in which the first-class performers of the Drama Opera and Ballet performed, and the eighth scene of Zajc's opera
Nikola Šubić Zrinjski was also performed. At the entrance of the theatre is located the wall fountain
Well of Life (), designed by Croatian artist and sculptor
Ivan Meštrović in 1905. Sculpture was made in 1905 and exhibited in 1909 in the author's gallery in
Ilica street no. 12. In 1912, sculpture was bought by
Izidor Kršnjavi and installed on the
Republic of Croatia Square. It was placed in the cavity surrounded by walls so that naked bodies on it would not cause astonishment and critical comments of conservative people of Zagreb at that time.
From 1945-1950 The theatre maintained the continuity of its artistic activity and its multiple repertoire orientation (from patriotic drama in the second half of the 19th century, through interest in world classics and older Croatian drama, to contemporary Croatian drama, which was nurtured by special competitions and the institution of the Demeter Award, 1907–45), despite repeated censorship pressures and bans on certain politically provocative productions attempts to ideologically control and direct it, and even occasional misuse of its space for political propaganda purposes. During the
NDH, the ensemble was divided into the Croatian State Theatre and a part that operated as a partisan traveling troupe. After the end of the war, the ensemble was reunited, expanded and changed, and now operates under the name of the Croatian National Theatre. In 1950s, after breaking with the Stalinist cultural model, the repertoire and theatrical poetics were modernized, and texts by more contemporary foreign writers gradually appeared on the stage, finding shelter on the Chamber Stage of the Croatian National Theatre, opened in 1957. As the only and then central Croatian and Zagreb theatre institution for a long time, the Croatian National Theatre faced a changed theatrical context with the emergence of other theatres, in which it first lost its primacy over the presentation of contemporary world and Croatian dramatic language and increasingly focused on the classical repertoire, and in the 1990s, special attention was paid to drama with themes from Croatian history. From 1963, a collaboration with the Music Biennale began on a previously unknown modern and avant-garde repertoire (e.g.
Stravinsky,
Arnold Schoenberg, etc.), great foreign singers and foreign opera ensembles (from Hamburg, Berlin, London) were guests, and the Croatian National Theatre Opera toured Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and Austria. ==Performances==