10 euro – 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Slovak National Theatre

The Slovak National Theatre (SND) was established in 1920 and played an important role in supporting the objectives of the then recently established Czechoslovak Republic. Putting together Slovakia’s first permanent professional theatre was a demanding process, given not only the noticeable shortage of professional performing artists, but also the lack of clarity about the cultural and social objectives that the SND was supposed to meet. The performances put on by the SND in its early years were mostly in the Czech language, but with a new generation of Slovak performers coming through, an increasing number of productions were in Slovak. Today, the SND’s companies perform at the theatre’s New Building and also at its original venue: a building in central Bratislava built in 1886 to a design by the renowned Viennese architectural studio Fellner & Helmer (known originally as the City Theatre and now as the SND Historical Building). Starting out against the backdrop of the Germanic-Hungarian theatrical scene, the SND’s further evolution reflected the effects of several regime changes on the composition of its casts and audiences. in 846.