The Croatian National Bank Building
The entire building façade is covered in famous white stone from the island of Brač, and the main classicist façade is emphasized by four tall Ionic columns, reminding of a Greek temple.
The monumental appearance that characterizes the façade continues into the entrance area as well. The area has the shape of a tall vestibule with a coffered ceiling, decorated with rosettes. The main focus of the space is a staircase leading to the foyer of the main stock exchange hall.
There is a large clock above the entrance to the main stock exchange hall designed specifically for the Stock Exchange Building. All the clocks in the building have a common mechanism, in order to show the same time.
The main stock exchange hall is circular in shape, covered by a 21-meter wide coffered dome made of reinforced concrete and opened by a circular skylight. Although it is not visible from the street, the dome is higher than the main building façade. The floor of the hall is covered with mosaics, and the central part is covered with glass prisms allow light to reach a small hall on the ground floor. Photos of the interior of the building can be viewed on the CNB website.
The history of the Building
The story of the Zagreb Stock and Commodity Exchange Palace is closely connected to the establishment and work of the Stock Exchange itself. Although 1907, the year of the establishment of the Stock and Commodity Exchange Department under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce, is usually perceived as the year the Zagreb Stock Exchange was established, it was in fact officially founded in 1918.
The Stock Exchange was initially located in the building of the Chamber of Commerce situated in Jurišićeva 1, where the Chamber of Commerce leased a large hall to the Stock Exchange to be used for one hour a day in order to hold stock exchange meetings and one room to accommodate an office. Stock exchange transactions increased in that period, as did the number of its members, causing the space used by the Stock Exchange to become insufficient within a short period of time.
As a result, the Zagreb Stock and Commodity Exchange decided to have its own palace built. In November 1920 the Zagreb Stock Exchange purchased land from the city: a construction site of triangular shape located at the very end of Jurišićeva Street, at the intersection of Martićeva Street and Račkoga Street.
The Stock Exchange began with the construction immediately. It was decided that the best design be selected on the basis of a competition inviting architects Viktor Kovačić, Aladar Baranyai, Ignjat Fischer, Bruno Bauer, Laza Dungjerski and Jože Plečnik to submit their proposals.
The solution proposed by Viktor Kovačić was selected as the best. In the submitted design, Kovačić also took the entire urban complex into consideration, proposing the construction of another building as a twin to his Stock Exchange building. The two buildings were supposed to form a symmetrical portal leading to the new part of the city.
The Stock Exchange Council and Secretary’s Office decided to send the architect Viktor Kovačić and the General Secretary on a study trip in 1922. Kovačić thus visited the stock exchange buildings in Vienna and Berlin as a part of his journey. Upon his return and after consulting the Stock Exchange Management Board, Kovačić completed a new design according to which the building was ultimately constructed, with a few minor changes.
After the death of Viktor Kovačić on 21 October 1924, Hugo Ehrlich, Kovačić’s former business partner, took over the work on the construction, accompanied by architects Alfred Albini and Mladen Kauzlarić. They completed the interior of the building. Particular attention was paid to the building’s equipment: furniture, light fixtures and balustrades on the staircases and the gallery of the main stock exchange hall were designed especially for the building.
The Zagreb Stock and Commodity Exchange Building was inaugurated on 18 June 1927. To honour the occasion, the weekly “Svijet” dedicated an entire issue to the event.
Regrettably, the completion of construction works coincided with the deceleration of Croatian economic growth and a decrease in stock exchange transactions. Until World War II, the Zagreb Stock Exchange leased most of its premises.
The Stock Exchange discontinued its work in 1945.
Location
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is situated on the slopes of Medvednica mountain, in the Carpathian Basin, and on the banks of the Sava river. Zagreb has a rich and diverse history, culture, and architecture that reflect its long and turbulent past.
ExploreClassicism
The term Classicism refers to two distinct periods in the evolution of European fine art: an earlier period spanning the 16th to 17th centuries, and a later period (also called Neoclassicism) from 1760 to 1830. In the Austrian lands (which included Croatia at the time), it emerged in the early 19th century.
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Yugoslav architecture emerged in the first decades of the 20th century before the establishment of the state; during this period several South Slavic creatives, enthused by the possibility of statehood, organized a series of art exhibitions in Serbia in the name of a shared Slavic identity. Following governmental centralization after the 1918 creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, this initial bottom-up enthusiasm began to fade. Yugoslav architecture became more and more dictated by an increasingly concentrated national authority that sought to establish a unified state identity. Beginning in the 1920s, Yugoslav architects began to advocate for architectural modernism, viewing the style as the logical extension of progressive national narratives.
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