Register of modern architecture oA HÚ SAV

On 28 October we commemorate the establishment of the First Czechoslovak Republic, a state formation that fundamentally influenced the social development in Slovakia and represented an important milestone in the modernisation of our country. At the same time, the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 can also be regarded as a strong initiating moment in relation to the development of the local artistic avant-garde. It was the two decades of the Czechoslovak Republic's existence that formed the framework for the emergence of modern art education, the first art periodicals, a number of artistic societies and associations, as well as hundreds of modern architectural works in Slovakia.

Although the First Czechoslovak Republic existed for just over 20 years, it was able to make a fundamental mark on the material environment of Slovakia. Already the first years were accompanied by massive construction of public administration buildings, educational institutions and housing for state employees. At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, investments in infrastructure and industry were added. The construction of water works on the Váh River was started, dozens of roads, road and railway bridges were built. Among them was the most charming work of the Slovak avant-garde, the Colonnade Bridge in Piešt'any. At the same time, investments in the construction of medical facilities grew. New buildings of hospitals and health insurance companies were added in towns, and convalescent homes and health resorts in the mountains and spas. Thanks to a new law on the financial support of housing construction, passed in 1930, hundreds of housing complexes and apartment buildings were built across the country in the 1930s.

The beginning of the 1930s was also decisive in terms of the establishment of the architectural avant-garde of Slovakia. In 1931, three professional magazines, Nová Bratislava, Forum and Slovenský staviteľ, were founded, which became the carriers of architectural discussion in Slovakia. The latter was rich in various trends and shades of modern architecture, from purism and constructivism, through new facticity and functionalism, to the neo-classical tendencies of the second half of the 1930s. The remarkable regionally specific combination of different, often parallel approaches illustrates not only the creative mood of the art scene of the First Republic, but also its free pluralistic character. It was in such conditions that the outstanding works that have indelibly inscribed Slovakia on the map of the international modern movement could be born.

Looking back on the modernisation of Slovakia in the 1920s and 1930s, the massive building production and valuable architectural work, there is only one thing to be stated: I wish we could take inspiration from this remarkable period today.

You can see the entire collection of objects here: The Czechoslovak Republic and the Slovak architectural avant-garde