Architecture of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia in the Territory of Present-day Slovakia (1918 – 1938)

Abstract

The end of the Great war brought about many changes in the European political, social and economic climate. Monarchies were replaced with more democratic systems, countries lost their territories, and new sates based on national principle were established. In 1918, after a period of ethnic oppression and magyarization in the Hungarian part of the Habsburg Empire following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, the Bohemian and Slovak people declared their independence and founded a new national state - the Czechoslovakia. The period short after its foundation was one full of enthusiasm and joy stemming from the newfound freedom and opportunity for cultivation of national culture, identity and politics in democratic environment on the one hand, and challenges brought by the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian economy and political system on the other. As a result of establishing the new state, the need arose to define its nation by architecture and the issue of National Style reemerged. After the brief period of Rondocubism preference, for some time, the official buildings retained certain expressive character and massive features. Even after giving way to Modernism, the sense of traditionalism was evident. In the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia, bank buildings, as buildings of institutions that once supported national-emancipatory aspirations of Slovak people, bank architecture often used well-established schemes and preferred more traditional designs to convey desired messages. The institution in charge of monetary separation and management of the new currency was the Banking Office of the Ministry of Finance and subsequently the National Bank of Czechoslovakia (since 1926). After the collapse of Austro-Hungarian Empire, all the buildings of branch offices of the former central bank – the Austro-Hungarian Bank - were took over by the Czechoslovak government. These were often extended, as were the cases of branch office buildings in Bratislava, Košice and Žilina. When they no longer fitted the formal or capacity criteria, three new branch office buildings were built on the territory of present-day Slovakia: a neo-renaissance building in Banská Bystrica (Ladislav Skřivánek, 1930 – 1932) and two buildings in the style of regional modernism with notes of traditionalism and classical features in Ružomberok (Vladimír Fischer, 1930 – 1932) and Bratislava (Emil Belluš, 1936-1938). The article examines stylistic, ideological, formal, and layout requirements for an architectural concept of a central bank institution demonstrated on the examples of branch office buildings built during existence of the First Czechoslovak Republic in the territory of the present-day Slovakia. As a part of a systematic research focused on Slovak bank buildings, the chosen buildings will be analysed, compared with relevant examples, and interpreted in the context of political, social, and economical situation, and style and typological particularities.