Plečnik Auditorium opens in Tivoli Park

Situated in a clearing behind Tivoli Mansion, the Plečnik Auditorium was built in 1933, but allowed to fall into disrepair after the Second World War.

Until the mid-1960s, the venue hosted an open-air summer cinema, but then the site became overgrown. The clearing is now surrounded by tall trees.

Following Plečnik's designs, wooden stairs serving as stands and supported by a steel structure were installed at the edge of the forest using the natural slant of the terrain.

At the bottom of the gently rising stairs is a lawn that serves as a stage overlooking the city, just like it did in Plečnik's design, only that the great master used gravel instead of grass.

The auditorium has been reconstructed by the architectural firm Medprostor. Architect Rok Žnidaršič says they applied a minimal and reversible intervention to reinterpret the original design at the original location and within original dimensions.

In this way they highlighted Plečnik's care for the public space as one of the key values in his contribution to the humanity's heritage, Žnidaršič was quoted as saying by the website ljubljana.si.

A wooden footbridge and a pathway links the venue to the Švicarija arts centre and Tivoli Mansion, which is home to the International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC).

The MGLC will be responsible for the management of the new venue and for the programme and coordination of events in it. As a rule, these will be admission free.

The first event inaugurating the Plečnik Auditorium was the opening of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts last month.

According to ljubljana.si, the reconstruction of the Plečnik Auditorium ran from March to November 2022 at the cost of EUR 376,000, VAT excluded.