Time Machine: 130 Years of the Neo-Baroque Building of the Croatian National Theatre

In 2025 the Croatian National Theatre, where spectators enjoy excellent dramas, operas and ballets, is celebrating an important jubilee: 130 years since the opening of the building in which the magic of performing arts has continued to take place to this day.

The Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb is the oldest Croatian theatre which was officially open on 24 November 1860 even though the beginning of a national theatre took place two decades prior to this. After the facility in the Upper Town was damaged in the 1880 earthquake, the issue of a new location arose. Despite criticism, which described the new location as “the outskirts”, the place that was then a fairground was chosen. The announced visit of emperor Franz Joseph I sped up the construction decision and the construction itself.

The theatre building was designed in 1893 by a Vienese architectural company Helmer and Fellner. These were the most famous designers of theatre buildings at the time who built 48 theatres across Europe. More than two hundred craftspeople from Zagreb participated in the construction of the building, which is now located in the very centre of the city and surrounded by historical palaces. They installed the roof in just four months and completed the project in 16 months, which is truly a respectable endeavour even in construction today.

The style in which the theatre was built is Neo-Baroque, and its interior is decorated with painted canvases and valuable works of art.

The opening ceremony took place on 14 October 1895. This is when emperor Franz Joseph I symbolically opened the building precisely at 2 o’clock in front of numerous citizens and visitors from other parts of the country. He took a final stroke with a silver hammer which was made specifically for the occasion by sculptor Robert Frangeš Mihanović. On that day at 7 o’clock in the evening, in the presence of the emperor and other respectable guests, the first performance took place in the new building. It was an allegorical stage prologue in three scenes entitled “Glory to Art” by director, writer and at the same time theatre director Stjepan Miletić, accompanied by music by Croatian composer and conductor Ivan pl. Zajec and the eighth scene of his opera “Nikola Šubić Zrinski”.

The first ceremonial curtain, known under the title “Croatian Revival”, was made for the new theatre by painter Vlaho Bukovac. Today the national theatre boasts seven ceremonial and one iron curtain which brings it to the level of world theatres. The last one, entitled “Judita” was made in early October 2024 by Zlatko Kauzlarić Atač to commemorate the 500^th anniversary since the death of Croatian writer Marko Marulić, the author of the first epic poem written in Croatian.