National Theatre burns

JAN 01 1881 · 12:00

The National Theatre burning, August 1881, contemporary depiction Place: Národní třída embankment Figures: Josef Schulz, architect (rebuild) · the city's fire brigades · the public subscription, opening again the next morning The National Theatre opens on June 11, 1881, with Smetana's Libuše, composed nine years earlier for exactly this occasion. Eleven performances follow that summer. Workmen return after the gala to finish the lightning conductor on the roof, which the rush to opening had left half-installed. They work with open braziers in the August heat. The auditorium is locked beneath them. At 4 p.m. on August 12, smoke is seen rising from above the cupola. The brigades arrive within fifteen minutes, but the Vltava taps have low pressure and the auditorium ceiling has just been finished in seasoned spruce. The fire reaches the gas mains by six. By eleven that night the roof has fallen in. By dawn the building is a sandstone shell open to the sky.