Slovak National Theater
Bratislava's opera house - known officially as the historical building of the Slovak National Theater - is a neo-Renaissance-style building opened in 1886 as the City Theater, according to the design of Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer.
The busts of famous musical composers appear in the oval openings in the facade, as well as a stone sculptural group, the Muse of Thalia by the Viennese sculptor Theodor Friedl, and putti, figures of children symbolising traged and comedy, by Viktor Oskar Tilgner.
Tilgner was also the designer of the enchanting Ganymede's Fountain at the entrance to the theater. The fountain depicts Ganymede, born by an eagle to Olympus, where he will serve Zeus and in reward gain eternal youth, which to this day radiates from the boy's joyful face. The building is the seat of the Slovak National Theater opera and ballet ensembles.
(Photos © Tomáš Šereda / www.ttstudio.sk & Miroslav Ďurčo)
