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Photo: Archive: the City Municipality of Novo Mesto
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Opening of the exhibition "Jože Plečnik and Prague" in Novo mesto

The open-air exhibition "Jože Plečnik and Prague", organized by the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Ljubljana in cooperation with the Prague Castle Administration and the Office of the President of the Czech Republic, is now on display in Novo mesto, in the region of Southeast of Slovenia. The exhibition was already presented in Ljubljana and Celje and sparked a great interest and a number of positive responses.
 

On Monday, March 8, 2021, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic Juraj Chmiel and the Mayor of Novo Mesto Gregor Macedoni opened the mentioned exhibition on Square Stari trg in Novo Mesto. The exhibition presents the work of the famous Slovenian architect J. Plečnik during his “Prague period”.

Jože Plečnik left in Prague a very significant mark, especially as a chief architect of renovation of the Prague Castle and the presidential summer residence at the Lány castle during the times of President Tomáš Garrigu Masaryk. He also significantly influenced the face of the city in the second part of Prague, in Vinohrady, where the Church of the Most Sacred Heart of the Lord was built according to his plans. Architect Jože Plečnik also closely connected Slovenia and the Czech Republic being a professor at the Prague School of Applied Arts, where he educated fifty leading Czech architects.

After the opening of the exhibition, the Ambassador and the Mayor discussed the possibilities of cooperation in the field of culture based on many shared ties of this Slovenian region with the Czech Republic. In the area of Novo mesto and the Dolenjska region, people with Czech roots left important historical traces. The agronomist Bohuslav Skalický was the headmaster of the agricultural school at the former castle Grm since 1921 and an active representative of local public life. The last owners of the Grm castle, the Smola family, also came from Bohemia. Furthermore, the Mach family moved to the nearby town of Veliki Slatnik, where they left a big impact, so the Mach's tutorial trail is dedicated to their heritage. Father Johann Mach brought to Slovenia a lot of new knowledge about fruit growing agriculture, horticulture and beekeeping. He also started breeding a rare Asian silkworm - yamamay. His son Ernst Mach became a world-renowned physicist and philosopher. Next to the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher near the former Grm Castle, as a symbol of the Pan-Slavic movement in the 19th century, stands "Chalupa Jaromierska", a cultural monument brought from Czechoslovakia.

The Czech Embassy is very pleased that, due to the concept of the exhibition as an open-air exhibition, it is possible to support cultural life in the Novo mesto even in this difficult time caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the already mentioned organizers, a number of other partners took part in this exhibition. The author of the exhibition is one of the leading Czech professors of architecture Mr. Vladimír Šlapeta, the exhibition was graphically designed by Mr. Ondřej Grygar. Mrs. Tatjana Jamnik, the Slovenian translator of Czech literature, translated the text into the Slovenian language. The Czech Architecture week, FOIBOS BOOKS, Kotěra's Architecture Center and Plečnik's House in Ljubljana also participated in the preparation of the exhibition. The exhibition in Novo mesto took place thanks to the support of the municipality of Novo mesto, the Museum of Dolenjska and especially the efforts of members of the Association of Architects of the Dolenjska Region.

The exhibition is on display in the very centre of the Novo mesto on Stari trg Square until April 9, 2021.

 

 

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Opening of the exhibition "Jože Plečnik and Prague" in Novo mesto