The history of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb

Zagreb´s theatrical history goes back into the far 11th c., when, like in most European towns, a certain type of medieval theatre performances used to take place in churches and town squares. In the 16th c. performances took place in religious schools on Kaptol and on the streets of the neighbouring Gradec.

Until the end of the 18th. c. the theatre life was represented by school and student performances spoken in the Croatian language, by the kajkavian comedies performed in the Kaptol seminary and the noble convict in Gradec, and frequent foreign theatre troupes, mostly German and Italian, that performed dramas, music and ballet performances.

The guest performances were performed in the first Zagreb public hall for world performances, the former convict of Clares and today's Museum of the City of Zagreb, and in certain noble palaces of the Upper town. From 1797 to 1834, the Pejačević Palace, today's Croatian National History Museum having all the characteristics of a public theatre, acted as Amade´s theatre named after the last owner, the great mayor of Zagreb.

After having been under the Austrian rule for centuries, in the first half of the 19th. c. Zagreb became the centre of the Croatian national movement, and this was the time in which the theatre in Croatia, for the first time in its history and within the national movement, became an inevitable part of the political and national idea.

In 1836, Zagreb received its first professional theatre institution and building, built by Kristofor Stanković, a merchant who won money on the Viennese lottery, on St Mark's Square, the land granted to him by the city magistrate.

Along performances of foreign touring companies, the first theatrical piece in the Croatian language was performed on that stage in 1840. It was a heroic play Juran and Sofia or The Turks near Sisak by Kukuljević performed by the theatrical society Domorod. In 1846, Love and Malice, the first Croatian opera composed by Vatroslav Lisinski was performed as well. Today's Croatian National Theatre started its activities on the same Upper town stage in 1860, at first only as a drama theatre, which the Croatian Parliament by passing the theatre law the following year, one of the first laws in Europe, pronounced as a National Institution.

As the town was spreading, the need for a new theatre space was obvious and after ten years it has been decided that a new national theatre must be built on a spacious square in the Lower part of the town that, according to the urban plan, would become a certain cultural centre.

The blueprints were ordered from the famous Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner and Herman Helmer, authors of forty more European theatre buildings. After only 16 and half months of construction works, the theatre building was finished according to plans and it was ceremoniously opened by the emperor Franz Joseph I, who finally symbolically beat on the balcony above the main entrance with a silver hammer, made by the sculptor Robert Frangeš Mihanović on October 14, 1895. The neo-baroque building of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb is surrounded by numerous buildings that have a great monumental value and which represent the Croatian architecture of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th c.

With only one reconstruction during the sixties of the 20th c., that preserved all the basic parameters of the project and the purpose of the interior space, the same theatre building has served as a representative home to the Croatian theatre art for more than a hundred years, in which the three artistic ensembles, drama, opera and ballet, work simultaneously and without interruption.

From the very beginning, the repertoire of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb was very rich and various including the world classics, national tradition and contemporary works. Even though it was basically founded as a national cultural centre, the Croatian National Theatre has never stayed closed within itself, but it readily accepted and created diverse cultural links, opening its space to all theatrical cultures and giving guest performances all around the world, from America, throughout Europe, to the Far East. In its soon to be 150 years of history, the Croatian National Theatre has given a pleiad of the greatest artists and writers, actors and directors, set and costume designers, world famous opera and ballet principals, conductors and choreographers.