The first comprehensively designed pedestrian zone in Slovakia was implemented in Trnava. Plans to reconstruct the pedestrian zone were discussed as early as the 1970s. The zoning plan designated pedestrian zones in 1974, but the proposal to complete the urban interior was created later. The reconstructed pedestrian zone was opened in 1988. The project included the main street of the historic center and the adjacent Trojičné námestie (Trinity Square). Currently, the pedestrian zone in Trnava is part of the Central City Zone, the City Monument Preservation Area, and the Trnava City Protection Zone.
The reconstruction design is stylistically based on the geometric-abstract principles of modernism. The architects designed variable segmented artistic and functional elements of furniture made of quarter-circle artificial stone with a system of anchoring segments, from which sets of elements and structures of benches, walls enclosing flower beds, and waste bins were created. The design also included low and high atypical pole-mounted spherical lights, but these were replaced with other spherical lights during implementation.
The space of Trojičné námestie (Trinity Square), originally Gottwaldovo námestie (Gottwald Square), is paved with stone mosaic with a central circular pattern of paving on the square with an eccentrically placed sculpture of the Holy Trinity, which is its dominant feature. The pattern and type of anthracite and light gray stone mosaic paving with geometric circular and strip motifs have been preserved. The stone curbs copy the arched paving. The square includes a stone circular fountain from a later design.
The main street, originally called Februárového víťazstva (February Victory) Street, underwent a recent renovation in 2014 as the most attractive shopping street in the city center. The second competition for the reconstruction was won by one of the original designers, Dušan Dóka, with a team from Atelier Doka, thus maintaining a certain continuity in the design, even though the project does not directly follow on from the previous design with new elements of furniture and surfaces. Only the part from Trojičné námestie (Trinity Square) has been preserved from the original design from the 1980s. The Trnava pedestrian zone won the ZSA Award for 1988, and the author was awarded a special prize by the city of Vienna at the 5th World Architecture Biennale in Sofia. The original part of the pedestrian zone on Trojičné námestie from 1988 is functional and continues to serve its purpose.
Bibliography:
KOVÁČ, Bohuslav – DÓKA, Dušan. Pešia zóna v Trnave. Projekt, 1989, roč. 31, č. 1, s. 12–14.
DULLA, Matúš – VOJTKOVÁ, Viera. Pešia zóna v Trnave. Projekt, 1991, roč. 33, č. 9–10, s. 46.
Projekt, 1989, roč. 31, č. 5, s. 15.
Centrálna mestská zóna v Trnave. Projekt, 1984, roč. 26, č. 9, s. 38–43.
