No major events are scheduled for today but search giant Google honoured one of the most famous Slovenians with a doodle depicting perhaps his most celebrated creation, the Triple Bridge in the centre of Ljubljana.
Other notable works in Ljubljana include the central market place, the National and University Library, the recently renovated Congress Square, the stadium in the Bežigrad borough, the Križanke open-air theatre and the Žale cemetery.
Plečnik's legacy in Vienna, where he created his earliest work, includes several residential houses and the Church of the Holy Spirit in the district of Ottakring. In Prague he did extensive renovation work on Prague Castle.
Throughout the year, the anniversary series will be headlined by guided tours of a different Plečnik work each month given by Plečnik experts. The MOA will host a series of talks featuring artists and experts discussing the inspiration Plečnik's work still provides, and its significance for the future of architecture, design and Slovenian culture in general.
It will organize a number of evening lectures dubbed Plečnik's Concepts for the Future on 26 January, followed by another round of lectures in February. In Ljubljana, visitors can still see Plečnik's house just as it was at the time of his death, complete with a collection of over 17,600 items. The MAO is also participating in a Czech-Slovenian task force preparing material to nominate Plečnik's work for the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Born in Ljubljana, Plečnik studied at the Vienna Art Academy and got his first job in a bureau headed by Otto Wagner, the head of the architecture department at the academy. Becoming an independent architect, Plečnik left for Prague in 1911, where he was appointed head architect in the renovation of Prague Castle in 1920. Moving back to Ljubljana in 1921 to teach at the newly established Architecture Faculty, he spent the next 13 years shuttling between Ljubljana and Prague until the Hradčany Castle was renovated in 1934.
He died on 7 January 1957 at his home in Ljubljana's district of Trnovo. He is buried at Žale, Ljubljana's central cemetery, which is also his work.
SOURCE: The Slovenia Times
