The architecture in Slovenia and Holland: Ljublijana

Background information

City background

Ljublijana, Slovenia

Ljubljana is the capital and largest city of Slovenia and it`s the only centre of international importance. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. With approximately 280,000 inhabitants, it classifies as the only Slovenian large town.Throughout its history, it has been influenced by its geographic position at the crossroads of the Slavic world with the Germanic and Latin cultures.

Map of Ljublijana

Our exchange group, Kristof, Stijn and Levi, has visited Ljubljana during our stay in Slovenia. Here we saw a lot of the buildings, and Kristof told Levi and Stijn a lot about them.

The Earthquake

Vodnik Square (before the earthquake)

The 1895 earthquake, also called The Easter Earthquake was an earthquake that destroyed a part of Ljubljana`s buildings. At that time, Ljubljana's population was around 31.000 people, with around 1400 buildings. About ten percent of buildings were damaged or destroyed, although few people died in the destruction. On Vodnik Square (Vodnikov trg), an old monastery, which contained a girls diocesan college and a library, was sufficiently damaged that it had to be razed, and the site eventually was turned into an outdoor market (Ljubljana Central Market, Osrednja ljubljanska tržnica), now an important site in the city.

Ljubljana Central Market

Buildings

National and University Library of Slovenia (NUK)

The National and University Library established in 1774, it is one of the most important national educational and cultural institutions of Slovenia. It is located in the centre of Ljubljana, in a building designed by the architect Jože Plečnik in the years 1930–1931 and constructed between 1936–1941. The building is considered one of the greatest achievements by Plečnik. According to the Mandatory Publications Copy Act, issuers are bound to submit a copy of each publication they publish to the National and University Library. There have been significant problems with a lack of space and a new modern building has been planned to be built in the vicinity.

The National and University Library of Slovenia

Ljublijana Castle

Ljubljana Castle is a medieval castle in Ljubljana. It is located on Castle Hill, overlooking the old town. At the end of the 1960s, the long and extensive renovation works started. The whole renovation took more than 35 years. In the 1990s, the use of the castle as a place for weddings and cultural events began. The Ljubljana Castle funicular, a funicular railway to the top of Castle Hill, was built in 2006 and brought to service on 28 December 2006. The hill also features a 1974 monument by the sculptor Stojan Batič dedicated to the Slovene peasant revolts. It is also a tourist attraction. The remains of the fortifications on Castle Hill were reworked into a promenade called Šance, designed -again- by the Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik.

Ljublijana Castle, with the railway

Slovene National Theatre

The building was previously named the Provincial Theatre and was built between 1890 and 1892 in the Neo-Renaissance style by the Czech architects Jan Vladimír Hráský and Anton Hruby. Before the construction of the German Theatre, the present Ljubljana theatre, in 1911, the building served as a venue for productions in both Slovenian and German, and afterwards only in Slovenian.

The facade of the Opera House has Ionic columns supporting a tympanum above the entrance and has two niches at the side adorned with allegorical statues of Tragedy and Comedy by sculptor Alojzij Gangl.

Last couple of years, the Theatre has been upgraded to modern standards. They extended and enlarged the building with something that looks like a big black box.