HISTORY OF THE AUDITORIUM

The auditorium of the All Colours Theatre is located in a building with a strange history. It was originally built in 1671 as the MONASTERY OF THE CARMELITES OF ST. GALL by the renowned Baroque architects GIOVANNI DOMENICO ORSI DE ORSINI (1633 - 1679) and ANSELMO MARTINO LURAGO (1701 - 1765). The auditorium served as a dining area – a refectory.

After the monastery was dissolved in 1786, the occupants of the building included the state lace manufacturer and a number of shops; due to these, the interior of the auditorium was modified around the year 1832. Significant change was wrought by the changes effected in the 1930s; the building was adapted by the architect, J. Rössler, and for a while the hall was changed into a prominent café.

Possible the most bizarre events happened after 1948. It was here that the Institute for the History of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was established. The building was renovated, at great cost, at the start of the so-called normalisation period in the 1970s, when the House of Soviet Science and Culture was set up. The auditorium itself was adapted for the holding of lectures and concerts.

Further reconstruction was carried out in the year 1993, when the All Colours Theatre, or rather its parent company, Interart Production a.s., came to be based. In the winter of 2000-01, Interart, at its own cost, built the theatre balcony, raising the capacity of the hall by almost 50.

Baroque vaulting has only been preserved in the wings, where the former refectory is located. In the hall itself can be found the original stucco decoration and ceiling frescos, from the years 1730-40, on Biblical themes (the Last Supper, Jacob’s dream and Christ in Emmaus), related to the hall’s original purpose.