The theatre was opened on November 14, 1882. Originally, the Deutsches Stadttheater (German City Theatre) was the German opera house. After WWI it became Divadlo na Hradbách (Theatre On the Wall) when it passed hands to the new Czechoslovak state. The first dramatic advisor was Jíří Mahen, a Czech writer and playwright, and it was named after him in 1965.
Mahenovo divadlo was the first theater on the European continent to be fully equipped with electric lighting. While Edison didn't make it to the installation he did visit the theater 25 years later, in 1911. One of Edison's bulbs and a decorative copper case is on display neThe theatre is really beautiful. The architectural style of building exterior is neo-Renaissance while the interior is neo-Baroque. I can't wait to see what it looks like at night during a performance of some kind.
There are some more pictures of the theater already posted on Flickr.





