Ljubljana was the capital of the Austro Hungarian Province of Carniola at the endneboticnik_01_150.jpg (12579 bytes) of the 19th century having less than 30000 inhabitants and being very rural in appearance. The turning point was the devastating earthquake which struck the town in 1895. Immediately after that the regulation plan was prepared with the help of two top experts in urban planning of the time in Vienna, Camillo Sitte and Maks Fabiani. The image of Ljubljana started to change rapidly and the first echoes of the new Secessionist style in Ljubljana appeared.

"Secessionist Ljubljana", which developed mainly in the first decade of the 20th century is the synonim for the whole town quarter between the old medieval core and the railway line. The first real secessionist work, Dragon Bridge (Zmajski most) by the Dalmation architect Jurij Zaninovic was erected only in 1901.

The architecture of Ljubljana was mainly influenced by Vienna Secession and its special variant of modern art, accentuating more rational and geometric forms. Maks Fabiani and Joze Plecnik, two central figures of modern Slovene architecture are internationally recognized as co-founders of modern art movement in Vienna.

While Plecnik contributed to the Secessionist movement only in his early works in Vienna, Fabiani gave an important character of the period to Ljubljana. His architecture shows the evolution from the decorative Secessionist to the modernist phase, in which he concentrated on trying to use neboticnik_03_200.jpg (11892 bytes)and re-create the traditional local elements in a modern way.

Although Secession mainly left its imprint on the decoration of the facades, in some cases, modernism surpassed the use of individual stylistic elements and intervened also in the building structure.

Even more than architecture Art Nouveau influenced the style of furnishing domestic and public interiors. Several important factories in Slovenia produced decorative and functional objects for everyday use. The ideals of Art Nouveau inspired painting as well, particularly the caricature, illustration and different kinds of graphic arts. The most important was the group of young painters Vesna, who studied in Vienna at the turn of the century, absorbing the decorative language of Vienna Secession and introducing the Slovene folk art motifs into their art.

neboticnik_02_350.jpg (9630 bytes)"Nebotiènik" (The Skyscraper) was the very first really high building in Ljubljana. It was built in 1933 by the architect Vladimir Šubic and represented an answer to modern trends in American Architecture at that time. At the same time Nebotiènik was the first building in Europe capable of coping with the earthquake of 9.th degree by Mercalli.

Ljubljana's Neboticnik Is 70 Years Old

February, 2003

The first Slovenian Neboticnik (Skyscraper, pronounced [nehboti:chni:k]), which is one of the symbols of Ljubljana, and which, besides the Ljubljana Castle, offers the most beautiful panoramic view of the city, was constructed by the Slovenian architect Vladimir Subic (1894 - 1946). Its inauguration was on 21 February 1933, and with its 70.35 metres of height it was for some time the tallest residential building in Europe.

The investor of Neboticnik was Pension Institute, which also selected Subic as a skyscraper's designer. In accordance with its statute, the Pension Institute was obliged to invest part of its capital into real estate, therefore soon after its establishment it began with a large-scale constructing action the result of which were numerous buildings in Ljubljana and Slovenia.

When they began building Neboticnik in July 1930, the news about its construction quite upset Slovenian public, especially the residents of Ljubljana. Some of them immediately labelled it a freak that would spoil the baroque silhouette of the city. Subic accepted modernism and functional architecture and he designed Neboticnik on the basis of the classical tripartite division of tall buildings, pioneered by the American architect Louis Sullivan and others. In accordance with this set-up, Neboticnik has a base connected with the street and pedestrians, a homogeneous shaft and a crown.

Neboticnik, which was constructed in a remarkably short time, with the then revolutionary application of reinforced concrete, is a 13-floor office and residential building with shops on the ground floor and on the first floor. From the second to the fifth floors, there are offices, while apartments are located from the sixth to the ninth floors. On the last three floors, there are a café, a bar, and an observation terrace. The top of the building on the thirteenth floor is concluded by a gloriette with a rising flagpole.

The entrance to the building leads to a magnificent vestibule walled with Karst marble from where it is possible to continue one's way up with one of the three elevators representing the main vertical communication of the building: two of the elevators are fast and take one to the café on the tenth and the eleventh floors, while the third one, which is slightly slower, was made for the residents of the building. In addition, a monumental spiral staircase rises up from the ground floor and leads all the way to the tenth floor.

Technically innovative elements are used not only for the communication system - the elevators, but also in the mechanical system. Heating is central with automatic oil burners, and from the sixth floor upward water is supplied with automatic pumps. All the café premises have pressure-ventilation and hot water supplied centrally from the basement. The multi-use program and functional scheme is decorated with neo-classical and art-deco elements and crowned with pilasters at the top of building. In planning and constructing Neboticnik, the strictest Japanese anti-seismic construction criteria were taken into account. Thus, Neboticnik rests on 16 supporting pillars that are set 18 metres into solid ground. This construction makes it one of the most earthquake-safe buildings in Ljubljana.

A four-metre colossal sculpture of a woman, which adorns the facade of Neboticnik overlooking the main street, is a work of Slovenian sculptor Lojze Dolinar (1893 - 1970). Its main purpose was to alleviate connection between a much lower neighbouring bank and a new skyscraper.

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