The Stanković Theatre (Old Theatre; Town Theatre), the first commissioned theatre building in Zagreb. It was built by merchant Kristofor Stanković with the money (30,000 ducats) he won at the Vienna lottery in 1833. It was located in the Old Town, between St. Mark’s Square and Ćirilometodska and Freudenreichova streets, and served its original purpose from 1834 to 1895. The entrance to the theatre hall led from a spacious vestibule on the ground floor of the two-story building, and the auditorium had stalls, a balcony and three rows of boxes (it could accommodate 750 to 800 spectators) and was located in the wing of the building in Freudenreichova street (demolished in 1897). The preserved part of the building now accommodates the Zagreb City Hall. The theatre was mainly rented to foreign (mostly Austrian/German) theatre companies, and performances in Croatian were rare until 16 November 1860, when German actors were permanently expelled from the Zagreb stages. From then on, performances were given exclusively by the Croatian acting company, the forerunner of the Croatian National Theatre as the central national theatre institution, formally established in 1861.
Link: https://www.enciklopedija.hr/clanak/stankovicevo-kazaliste
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