Original name: National Theatre Paint Shop and Depots

Original purpose: National Theatre paint shop and depots

Address: Viničná 438/3, Apolinářská 438/7, Praha 2, Nové Město

Author: Karel Skopec

Date of construction: 1899–1900

Style: Neo Renaissance

Reconstruction: reconstruction to the design of Jaroslav Červinka

Date of reconstruction: after 1945

Current use: National Theatre set pieces depot and National Theatre transport office (Apolinář or Viničná)

The National Theatre paint shop and depot building, constructed in 1899–1900 by architect Karel Skopec, is located in a sparsely developed area of Prague 2 at the perimeter of the Albertov campus. It is adjacent to the Faculty of Science and to terraces of the Botanical Garden which it overlooks. The paint shop and depot building constitutes the street front and connects to the neighbouring garden wall. The main facade facing the South runs along Apolinářská Street and ends at North West with a historicist turret with battlements.

Construction of the National Theatre Paint Shop and Depots building had to do with national awakening tendencies in the course of the 19th century as well as with calls for realistic stage settings. Up until then, the National Theatre had been picking sceneries and set pieces from the catalogue issued by Vienna-based company Brioschi, Burghart and Kautsky, k. k. (Hoftheatre Maler in Wien) or other firms from Vienna and Munich which would deliver the ordered set pieces to the National Theatre. Such dependence on Vienna and Munich prompted the Bohemian Land Society for National Theatre Production to decide in 1900 to erect its own production building in Prague Na Karlově. A year later, a building arose above the Botanical garden, highly modern for its time, living up to top technical standards, with a paint shop, thermoforming shop, carpenter shop, stable, gentlemen’s and ladies dressmaker, as well as set pieces depots and furniture warehouses.“ (Compasses, brushes and pallet: amidst National Theatre set pieces, hundred years ago and today. Hospodářské noviny. Praha, 2000, 44(80) 20000421, pp. 4–5)

“The building has a terrace, partially glassed and roofed. This is where one enters the high-ceiling basements stretching along the edge of the Botanical Garden. Below the terrace, there are basement workshops and depots accessible from a ramp, and a small garden. Facades facing the street and those facing the courtyard are decorated with the same elements: high pilasters, simulated masonry, stucco decoration. The facade facing the street bears the Bohemian Kingdom’s coat of arms made in stone whereas part of the South facade boasts statues placed in niches in circular arrangements. Low buildings that host workshops, garages and reception were built later on, extending the structure toward Viničná Street. Inside of the building there are high-ceiling spaces designed to store high flats, thereby offering a view of the steel and wooden roof frame above. Basements are arched up to form a stable vault. Facade windows do not correspond with floor levels. Floors are accessible by a freight lift or a metal staircase, or – as in the rear building - by a spiral stone-staircase (with ornamental, cast-iron banisters) in the little turret. This same staircase also leads to the roof.“ (BAŤKOVÁ, Růžena (ed.). Umělecké památky Prahy (Art Landmarks of Prague). 1. Praha: Academia, 1998, p. 325).

There was a grandiose paint shop in the building. “Background sceneries were painted here as large as 15m x 11m x 8m... the total floor area of the paint shop was 360 sqm, plus 225 sqm of the gallery floorage. Thus, it was possible to work on three background sceneries at a time. There was also a small studio for a painter, a dark chamber for photographers... even a stabling with accessories.“ (Of the National Theatre Depot and Paint Shop in Prague. Zlatá Praha. 1905, XXII(26), p. 11) The paint shop had a walkway (gallery) from which the scenery’s visual effect could be observed from a distance, in order to see how the audience will perceive it when it is installed on stage.

The yard is accessible to trucks via the driveway from Viničná Street (alongside the entrance to the building). Framed sceneries were originally transported to the theatre by two large, closed carriages whereas packed sceneries were transported on a low carriage. At present, sceneries are transported by trucks with trailers.

Since the construction of the building, its spaces have been reconstructed several times over. In 1921, a carpenter shop was built in the backyard, followed by a garage in 1927.

Close to the end of World War II, on February 14, 1945, the building was damaged during bombardment of Prague by Anglo-American allies. Scenery production spaces in the theatre shops were destructed, never to be properly restored, and period scenery backgrounds painted by in-house scenery designers burnt up in the fire. A partial reconstruction was carried out in 1947 to the design of architect Jaroslav Červinka, aimed to restore the bombed-out paint shops. In 1960 and 1963, the building was extended by a newly built electrical substation whilst the workshops, clubrooms and car repair shop underwent alterations and the freight lift was re-built. In 1974, scenery production shops were moved to a building at Flóra on Vinohradská Street. The latest documented alterations were made in 1986: intermediate floors were built inside depots in the middle- and lower buildings as well as in the basement depot. In 2015, costume depot was relocated to the lower building, wherefore a concrete floor had been built in, and window and door frames were re-painted. The space is currently used as a set pieces warehouse and the National Theatre transport office. It also houses a depository of stage furniture holding around 7,000 items, costume depots and a costume laundry.

The complex is a listed building, closed to the public. Another depot storing the remaining National Theatre sceneries is located on the outskirts of Prague in Kunratice; there are plans to store them in containers whereby dedicated containers would be used for a particular scenic production. The National Theatre has newly acquired a land plot in the Prague district of Karlín where it would like to build a modern “superbuilding“ hosting theatre workshops and an assembly hall whereas the buildings in Apolinář will likely be returned to the state.

Author: Marcela Steinbachová

Translator: Jiří Pilucha