Olha Kobylianska Music and Drama Theatre
Chernivtsi's 1905 Fellner and Helmer theatre, still the city's main drama company.
The theatre was built in 1904 and 1905 for what was then the Austrian crown land of Bukovina, to a design by the Vienna office of Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer, who produced dozens of theatres across central Europe. It is a compact Neo-Baroque building with Secessionist decoration, a sculpted group over the entrance and a richly plastered auditorium, and it stands on Teatralna Square as the centrepiece of a set of civic buildings from the same period in the historic centre of Chernivtsi.
The building housed German and later Romanian companies before the Ukrainian music and drama theatre was established here; it is named after the Bukovinian writer Olha Kobylianska, who lived in the city. The company plays classic and modern drama, musicals and children's shows, including stage versions of Bukovinian writing such as Maria Matios's Sweet Darusia, and hosts the Golden Applause of Bukovina comedy festival each autumn.
Highlights
- Neo-Baroque building of 1905 by Fellner and Helmer
- Sculpted group and Secessionist detail on the main front
- Stage versions of Bukovinian writing, including Sweet Darusia
- Autumn Golden Applause of Bukovina comedy festival
