Cankarjev dom Cultural and Congress Centre
Slovenia's largest cultural centre, with the 1,545-seat Gallus Hall and its Schuke organ.
Cankarjev dom is Slovenia's largest cultural and congress centre, built as part of Edvard Ravnikar's scheme for Republic Square, the modernist civic ensemble he developed from 1960 beside the parliament building. Ravnikar designed the centre in the late 1970s and the first halls opened in 1980, with the complex completed in the early 1980s. Most of it lies below the level of the square, so that a large auditorium, several smaller halls, foyers and exhibition galleries sit under a terraced public space rather than behind a monumental facade.
The building is named after the writer Ivan Cankar. Its principal auditorium, Gallus Hall, seats around 1,545 and is noted for its acoustics and for a pipe organ built by the Karl Schuke workshop in Berlin; it is the usual home of visiting symphony orchestras. Smaller rooms such as Linhart Hall, Kosovel Hall and Stolp Hall host chamber music, jazz, theatre, dance and film, and the centre also runs exhibitions, festivals and congresses, making it a year-round venue rather than a single-company house.
Highlights
- Gallus Hall, seating about 1,545, with a Karl Schuke pipe organ
- Part of Edvard Ravnikar's modernist Republic Square ensemble
- Season series of symphonic, chamber, jazz and world music
- Exhibition galleries and a programme of festivals and film
