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National Theatre (Národní divadlo)
Národní 2 Praha 1 - Nové Město 110 00 Phone: 224 901 448 http://www.narodni-divadlo.czAbout
Ancestors of the National TheatreThe beginnings of theatre in today's Czech Republic date back to the 12th century, when the theatre was played in a church environment in relation to the liturgical rites of the church year (Easter and Christmas plays, the plays of feasts of saints, stories from their lives, etc.). The theatre was played at the premises of temples and monasteries, the actors were priests and religious - and also female characters were represented by men; texts were Latin.From the 13th century the influence of secular environment has been growing and in addition to the temple scenes, also more entertaining plays appear; they were played in the streets and marketplaces, but also at the court of the king Václav II. Actors were mainly religious students, but also students of home schools.The establishment of a university in the 14th century was of the great importance, the texts of plays began to be written also in Czech in addition to Latin (including original plays). In the Renaissance period lots of nobility palaces were constructed; they usually had big halls with at least two floors, which were also used for theatrical performances. However, these theatre performances were not public but were only intended only for invited guests of the Master of the House.The first theatre open for the general public was founded in Prague V Kotcích at the place of former merchant shops and in 1771 the first performance in Czech was played there - it was the translation of the originally German play called Prince Honzyk (Kníže Honzyk).In 1783 the Nostitz Theatre was opened, mainly for German drama and Italian opera. A year later the wooden Patriotic Theatre, so called Shed (Bouda), was built at Wenceslas Square and was intended exclusively for Czech performances. However, due to financial difficulties, it only was operated for 3 years and was demolished in 1789.During the 1st half of the 19th century several so-called arenas were established behind the city fortifications (mainly in the area of today's Vinohrady and Nusle), which were especially popular during the summer - they were airier than stone theatres. | History of the National TheatreIn 1845 an initiative of Czech patriots established the theatre cooperative that brought request for authorization of the establishment of Czech stone theater to the Viennese government. The request has remained unanswered for the time being.In 1848 Josef Kajetán Tyl suggested organizing collections for the construction of the theatre building and in 1850 the establishment of the Commission for the establishment of the Czech National Theatre in Prague was permitted; the commission immediately issued a call to start a collections. Among the donors there were representatives of the nobility, personalities of social and cultural life, many clubs and organizations, groups of workers and employees of various factories and plants as well as thousands of individual citizens. In 1852 a plot was purchased on the bank of Vltava river but the start of the construction has been hampered by disputes between Old Czechs (F. Palacký, F. L. Rieger), who wanted to build a simpler building easier and faster built and Young Czechs (K. Sladkovský, K. H. Borovský), who advocated a more representative building with requiring higher financial costs. The dispute was resolved by a compromise that was the Provisional Theatre by the architect, Ignác Ullman opened after six months construction on 18 November 1862. It was able to accommodate 1,000 spectators and it was fully exploited up to the year 1883.In 1865 an architectural competition for the National Theatre itself was listed, in which the project by Josef Zítek, the Professor of Prague German Polytechnic School, in the northern Italian Renaissance style was awarded the first prize.On 16 May 1868 foundation stones were laid - one of which was to be originally from Říp Mountain, where it was broken off within a
