Plečnik's Ljubljana

I visited this WHS in 2022. I parked my car in the really convenient indoor Center Parking just next to the famous Dragon Bridge after having visited the three locations which are away from the historic city centre, namely the Church of St Michael, the Zale Cemetery and the Church of St Francis. Hubert provided detailed information especially for these three buildings outside the city centre and overall I agree with his doubts about Otto Wagner's buildings in Vienna not specifically included on the WH list.

The four locations inside the historic city centre are easily covered on foot as a pleasant loop which I started from the Dragon Bridge and covered Market Hall, walking along the Promenade along the Embankments and Bridges of the Ljubljanica River. Most probably the most unique and iconic bridge is the Triple Bridge with the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation in the background. There are a number of interesting and beautiful Art Nouveau buildings which are not part of the WHS but worth viewing such as the coral red Cooperative Bank building, the People's Loan Bank, the Grand Hotel Union, the Galerija Emporium building, the Hauptmann House and the Municipal Savings Bank, to name but a few. Next I covered the Vegova Street and the National Library, one of Plecnik's iconic buildings, as well as the Trnovo Bridge.

In 14 AD the Romans founded a permanent civilian settlement along a picturesque river in the shadow of the Alps called Emona. Perhaps the …

I visited Ljubljana after Christmas 2019 to spend New Years with friends who own an apartment in the city. Already then, before inscription, the town was overrun with tourists, mainly from Italy. Slovenia is not only a beautiful country but also cheaper then Italy to make a trip there attractive for Italians. 

I am not sure how much of its attraction the city owns to Plečnik. Perhaps the generosity of open spaces in the center may his main merit. His buildings with the pyramids and columns do not necessarily blend well with the medieval and baroque architecture of the city center, they seem often a bit inserted into the surrounding buildings as if they were taken from another city and placed here. The most interesting place was for me the Plečnik museum where you get access to his home and workspace and you get information about his buildings and, almost more interesting, into projects, mainly for Ljubljana, that were never realized like a HUGE stair case that should lead from that city to the castle and a big pyramid like building for the Slovenian parliament that should get around 200 meters high. Those buildings would have the townscape much more then the existing buildings do. 

'I find the title of the nomination very odd since "timeless" is certainly not the main characteristic for Plečnik's architecture. His stylized Neoclassizism leans on the Greek and Roman classic architecture but that doesn't make it timeless. In the opposite, it feels rather …

I have already expressed my enthusiasm towards Plečnik´s designs in Ljubljana in my previous review. Now, one week before the ultimate verdict of the UNESCO committee (July 2021), I would like to comment the omitting of The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord in Prague from the original nomination and compare it to the Church of St. Francis in Ljubljana, which has been added to the nomination quite recently. (PHOTO - LEFT: Ljubljana church exterior from East and interior towards East, RIGHT: Prague church exterior from East and interior towards East)

I live nearby the Plečnik´s church in Prague, and I am glad of it. The church is extremely monumental located in the middle of the square in rich/posh neighborhood Vinohrady (it means vineyards in English). Its visual impact to the square and the adjacent streets is iconic. The exterior is unusual with the contrast between brown bricks and grey elements. The focal point of the church is its huge, rather flat tower with a giant round window with clocks. The interior is simple and vast. IMO it is the best example of sacral architecture of the first half of 20thC in Czechia.

The church in rather poor and unassuming suburb of Ljubljana called Šiška, built for Friar Minors, is the modest variant of the church in Prague. They share several elements such as one monumental tower in the eastern part, central rectangular interior, using of pyramids around the tower, etc. But the different budget …

When the Advisory Body Evaluations (ABE) of the 2020/2021 nominations were published a few weeks prior to the WHC meeting, I was surprised to see that Ljubljana received a clear positive recommendation from the ICOMOS experts. According to the ABE, inscription is justified because the architecture of Jože Plečnik transformed a provincial town of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire into a modern and prestigious capital.
However, ICOMOS also had some concerns. They considered that the proposed criterion (i) (a masterpiece of human creative genius) was not met. Thus, Ljubljana is very likely to be inscribed only under criterion (iv) (example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates a significant stage in human history). The name of the site also changed, from the rather epic "The timeless, humanistic architecture of Jože Plečnik" to "The works of Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana - Human Centred Urban Design". Not much of a difference, if you ask me. Still the name Jože Plečnik is included in the title of the WHS, which places Plečnik in a category with the Gaudi, Le Corbusier, Frank Llyod Wright and Victor Horta. And that, in my opinion, is not justified.

The topic of this WHS is urban planning and design. One would therefore expect a contiguous core zone in the city centre, illustrating the connections between historic structures and new or renewed components. But it is nominated as a serial site with seven locations, some of which are in the …

The work of Jože Plečnik emanates a special spirit for me, though I am not able to exactly explain what it is and why it is so. I know his work already from Prague as he was the major architect of the first president of Czechoslovakia in 20s-30s of 20th century and reshaped the Prague Castle. Therefore, some of his projects and buildings are parts of WHS Prague. His church built for Prague neighborhood Vinohrady was originally the component of this nomination with Ljubljana, but it has changed after bilateral negotiations and advice of ICOMOS. Now, only several buildings, bridges, squares and one church in Ljubljana are proposed.

Plečnik was active from the break of 19/20th century as a pupil of Otto Wagner in Wiena. After WWI, his work (as well as his personality) radically changed. Thus, his style was no more Art Nouveau, but turned into a weird variation of neoclassicism and autochthonic modernism, and he was active till 50s of 20th century. Plečnik did not like functionalism and architecture with the function at all, which was no architecture in his opinion. He was influenced by theories of architects like Semper (Dresden opera) and Palladio (Vicenza). According him, real architecture should be timeless, beyond function, and it should consist of symbols recognizable for common people - therefore we can find the symbols of ancient Rome, Egypt and Etruscan era in his work (pyramids and columns everywhere). Plečnik was very, almost extremely, spiritual, ascetic and of humanistic nature. He …

After the First World War a first version of Yugoslawia was formed consisting of Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. As a consequence the importance of Ljubljana grew as it became a regional capital. To reflect the growing importance and to create a distinct national identity in their capital they asked Jože Plečnik to remodel the city.

Jože Plečnik was a successful architect, having made himself a name in Vienna and Prague. In Vienna he was a figure of the Vienna Secession movement . In Prague he redesigned the Prague Castle.

He applied his ideas to the center of Ljubljana. The most notable structure to me were the river banks he constructed.

If you have ever been in Ljubljana you will have seen his work.

OUV

I am not sure that the narrative of the great Jože Plečnik holds. Looking at his wikipedia page I can't shake the feeling that an enthusiastic Slovenian optimized his English page. The German page is far less enthusiastic. Looking only at his CV he seems to be primarily of regional importance.

The buildings I saw in Ljubljana are not ground breaking. Indeed they seem to be watered down Art Deco buildings, nice to look at but inconsequential and a bit late to the party.

The two most distinctive examples of his style are the Roman city gate with the pyramid on top and the Trnovo Bridge. They are not special or great or even unique. Comparisons to Antonin …

Slovenia’s Tentative List features The timeless, humanistic architecture of Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana and Prague. As the title already implies, this was meant to be a serial transnational nomination by Slovenia and Czechia. Last December however, after consulting ICOMOS, Slovenia decided to continue with the efforts alone: “the transnational bid was assessed as having little chance of success”. It is unclear yet whether they made the 1 February 2018 deadline for submitting the dossiers to be nominated for the WHC 2019, but we can safely assume that Slovenia will put this site forward within the next couple of years.

Jože Plečnik was a Slovene architect who made his most important works in the first half of the 20th century. He is nicknamed “the Gaudí of Ljubljana” for this architectural imprint on the city. I visited Ljubljana in 2014 after a few days checking out (T)WHS by rental car around Slovenia. This site wasn’t on the Tentative List at the time, so I had to revisit my photo archive of the day to see if I had visited (photographed) any of his buildings anyway.

The city is strong on Art Nouveau as well, and examples of that style stood out more to me in the streets of the Slovenian capital than the works of Plečnik. I spent most of my time at the embankment of the Ljubljanica River, an area in the city centre with lots of cafés and restaurants. This is already Plečnik Central. He was responsible for …