Reduta - cultural centre of town
Reduta is an Art Nouveau building built between the years 1899 - 1902. It cost almost half a million crowns and had immense admiration. They celebrated it as “a temple of beauty, good and truth”. Until today, there are only 8 similar historically valuable theatre buildings.
One of the last theatre buildings of its kind in Slovakia
The architect Kálmán Gerster designed the building in Spišská Nová Ves in a way, that besides the theatre itself, a hotel, a concert hall in the middle of the building and also a café were incorporated in it. The house had a white and golden decoration and the auditorium’s capacity was 235 seats.
It is a three-storey building with a longitudinal ground plan with four corner spires and pyramidal roof and it culminates in a decorative helmet and lantern. The helmets culminate in an onion roof. On the corners are plastic vases with the indication of a flame. The northern and southern walls are decorated with an avant-corp. When entering the Reduta there is a portico on two Ionic columns, whose upper part is modified as a terrace with balustrades. Below it there is the path used in the past as an access road for carriages. Pedestrians can use the stairway. The ceremonial - concert hall is located exactly in the center of the building. A basic motive of decoration is a large coat of arms of Spišská Nová Ves, as a symbol of singing and poetry. According to ancient myth the swan loves music and sings beautifully upon dying. The first floor and part of the ground floor were used as a restaurant, café and hotel. Now just the restaurant and a café remain.
The theater is addressed separately. It protrudes from the building in a semicircular form, which consists of a semicircular staircase, the entrance has seven doors. The theater has ground floor and two rows of balconies. An oil painting by the prominent Slovak painter Jozef Hanula is very impressive and it represents the High Tatras and its surroundings.
Nowadays the reduta houses the Spiš Theatre, Sonáta restaurant with a café, the Town Cultural Centre, and the local TV Reduta.
