Mahenovo divadlo
Building · Czechia
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Mahen Theatre, built as the Deutsches Stadttheater in 1882, was one of the world's first public buildings lit entirely by electric light. Its Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Baroque, and Neoclassical blend makes it a striking presence on Brno's main square.
The theatre's ornate stone facade rises over Malinovského náměstí, one of the more elaborate building fronts a rider passes through central Brno. It went up in just sixteen months, opening on 14 November 1882 as the city's German Stadttheater, designed by the Viennese firm Fellner and Helmer, prolific theatre architects across the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. A string of catastrophic theatre fires in Nice, Prague, and Vienna the year before had pushed Brno's council to insist on wide exits, fireproofing, and electric rather than gas light throughout the new building. In 1919 the building passed to Brno's Czech National Theatre company, and through the 1920s it hosted the world premieres of several Janáček operas, including The Cunning Little Vixen and The Makropulos Affair. It took its current name in 1965, after the Czech writer Jiří Mahen.
What you see
The theatre's dense Neo-Renaissance stonework, with sculpted decoration by the Viennese sculptor Theodor Friedl, fronts the open square at Malinovského náměstí, one of the most ornamented building faces along this stretch of central Brno.
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