Sights and Architecture, Theatres

In 1902, the municipality in Ostrava established a theatre building fund, and two years later the theatre construction committee decided to start building the municipal theatre. The Viennese architect Alexander Graf designed the building in the Neo-Baroque style. The most important supplier of this construction was the Vítkovice Ironworks, which made the roof trussing above the auditorium and stage and all other iron structures. The first, in comparison with other theatres in our country, was the use of reinforced concrete beams and horizontal lintels.

The artistic design of the interior of the building - the auditorium, foyer and vestibule - was the work of the Viennese sculpture company Johann Bock & Son. The sculptural work on the facade is the work of sculptor Eduard Smetana from Ostrava and the front facade of the building is crowned by a gable sculptural group by academic sculptor Leopold Kossig from Vienna. The author of the ceiling painting in the auditorium is another Viennese - academic painter Eduard Veith. In the main foyer there were placed two large reliefs "Drama" and "Music", which were donated to the theatre by the academic sculptor Helena Scholzová-Železná. The main curtain was created in the studio of painters Koutský & Rottonar in Vienna. It depicted an allegory of work, trade and art. The outcome of the work of the architect and all the mentioned artists is one of the most beautiful theatres in the republic. The Municipal Theatre (Stadttheatre) was inaugurated on 28 September 1907, and until 1919 plays were performed only in German. From 1919, it became a permanent stage of the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre, but during World War II, Czech theatre workers were forced to abandon the building and leave it to German theatre. After the end of the war, this representative stage of the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre (State Theatre in Ostrava) performed under the names Zemské divadlo (Provincial Theatre), Velké divadlo (Big Theatre) and Zdeněk Nejedlý Theatre.

The Municipal Theatre building has been called the Antonín Dvořák Theatre since 1990. It is the home stage of the opera, drama and ballet ensemble of the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre, and its auditorium can accommodate 517 spectators after the reconstruction from the turn of the millennium.