Old City Hall (Zagreb)
| Old City Hall | |
|---|---|
| Stara gradska vijećnica (Croatian) | |
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| General information | |
| Location | Zagreb, Croatia |
| Coordinates | 45°48′58″N 15°58′26″E / 45.81611°N 15.97389°ECoordinates: 45°48′58″N 15°58′26″E / 45.81611°N 15.97389°E |
The Old City Hall (Croatian: Stara gradska vijećnica) is a complex of three adjacent buildings located in the Gradec neighbourhood in Zagreb, Croatia. The three buildings were joined in the late 19th century and since then, the complex has served as the place where all sessions of the city assembly are held.
The earliest mention of the site dates from the 15th century, when a house on the same location was referred as "the Gradec city council building", and in 1614 the Gradec magistrate Jakov Gasparini had the house adapted into a town hall. According to historical records, in 1787 the building had eight rooms, a kitchen, three jails, two shops and a cellar. In 1803 the municipal authorities bought the adjacent building owned by count Adam Oršić, in order to expand the town hall. In 1832 local merchant Kristofor Stanković had won the main prize at the Vienna lottery and then decided to invest his winnings in building a city theatre. City authorities then added a second floor to Oršić's one-story house, torn down the original town hall and bought two land lots in today's Freudenreichova Street, which cleared enough space for the construction of a theatre, for which the cornerstone was laid on 12 August 1833. The theatre building, which was originally called "City theatre" (Gradsko kazalište) and later "People's theatre" (Narodno kazalište) was a one-story building with triple doors on Saints Cyril and Methodius Street, which featured a ballroom and a long gallery.
The Croatian language was first heard in the theatre during an intermezzo of a German production, when Ljudevit Gaj's reveille "Još Hrvatska ni propala" was performed, and the first play in Croatian, the Juran and Sofia or The Turks under Sisak: Heroic Play in Three Acts (Juran i Sofia ili Turci kod Siska: junačka igra u trih činih) by Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski, was performed there on 10 June 1840. The first Croatian opera, Love and Malice (Ljubav i zloba) by Vatroslav Lisinski, was also performed there on 28 March 1846. The ballroom also hosted a number of historically important sessions of the Croatian Parliament, most notably the one held on 23 October 1847 in which the parliament made Croatian language the official language spoken in the parliament.
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