In Budějovice

Jihočeské divadlo and the revolving auditorium

Pěšky 18 min · Autem 6 min

Jihočeské divadlo plays in Budějovice and in summer also at the revolving auditorium in the chateau garden in Český Krumlov. The auditorium was the first of its kind in the world. At the very beginning it did not turn by motor — forty people powered it.

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The revolving auditorium in the Krumlov chateau garden was the first in the world. In 1958 forty people turned the first sixty spectators by hand — and since 1990 a dispute has run over whether it may stand there at all.

Practical details

  • Pěšky 18 min · Autem 6 min

On site

In the revolving auditorium the audience turns, not the stage. The chateau garden around it is a real backdrop, not painted canvas — each turn reveals another slice of Baroque. The auditorium sits on the axis of the Baroque garden, exactly where the Baroque gardener wanted no building; that is the core of the dispute that has surrounded it since 1990.