“DONE! THE SPLENDID WORK, THE NEW ORNAMENT OF OUR BEAUTIFUL, ANCIENT CORONATION CITY IS COMPLETED!”1 IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION OF THE URBAN ELITE ILLUSTRATED ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE IN PRESSBURG

Discussions about the need to build a new Municipal Theatre started in the municipal council of Pressburg in 1879 and lasted for years. They were marked by an ambiguous attitude of the municipal representatives to the modernization of the city. The final decision was reached only in 1884, prompted by a decree of the ministerial president and minister of the interior, Kálmán Tisza, who called on Pressburg to build a home for the national (Hungarian) muse. The designs were made by renowned architects of theatre projects in Central Europe, Ferdinand Fellner jr. and Hermann Helmer, which reveals the long-standing cultural ties between Pressburg and Vienna, and the ambitions of the inhabitants of Pressburg to assert the status of their (former coronation) city in Hungary. The key figure behind the theatre project was Anton Sendlein, the chief engineer of Pressburg, whose testimony in the form of an extensive documentation of the construction of the Municipal Theatre provides scope for reflections on the events and on the main players behind them.