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(Old) City Theater

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After Chernivtsi had been without its own theatre building for several decades, with performances taking place in private houses, a riding school, a presumably wooden venue (next to the town hall) that soon burned down, and finally in the halls of various hotels ('Zum Schwarzen Adler', 'Moldavie'), the city council decided on 6 June 1877 to build a theatre on the corner of Schulgasse and Türkengasse.

(Old) City Theater

Education & Culture

built

1877 - 1877

The building, financed with 21,867 gulden, had a theatre hall for 574 spectators. The theatre season ran from October to May until after the turn of the century. Fire regulations forced the theatre to close in 1903/04, speeding up the construction of a new municipal theatre on Elisabeth Square in the city centre. The old municipal theatre was used as a workers' home and cinema until 1934, when it was demolished in an eviction between the Primaria and the tenant (the Social Democratic Party). In its place, a modern constructivist building was erected, which housed the headquarters of the Romanian Social Security until 1940.

Text: Markus Winkler

Sources:

Ion Lihaciu: Der Anfang des Theaterlebens in der Bukowina wiederspiegelt in der wiener satyrischen Zeitschrift der Humorist und in der amtlichen Czernowitzer Zeitung. In: Acta Iassyensia Comparationis 7(2009), S. 126-135
Georg Drozdowski: Zur Geschichte des Theaters in der Bukowina In: Franz Lang (Hg.) Buchenland. Hundertfünfzig 150 Jahre Deutschtum in der Bukowina. München 1961, S. 451-472
Horst Fassel: Das Czernowitzer Deutsche Theater; Stationen einer Entwicklung. In: Südostdeutsches Archiv, Band 36/37. München 1993/1994, S. 121-161