The Construction of a New Theatre in Bratislava by George Csáky According to Documents of the Hungarian Royal Governor’s Council

The creation of a new theatre for performances in Bratislava by George Csáky in 1775–1776 has been the subject of research for several authors, most of them focusing on the building itself, the repertoire and the theatre directors. The present study, however, deals with the process of the establishment of this theatre from the point of view of the official documents of the Hungarian Royal Governor’s Council. From the institution’s perspective, the most important issues appear to have been the general safety of the new building in terms of fire protection, financial aspects, the location of the theatre, cooperation between the city and George Csáky throughout its construction and finally, the compensation of Franz Krimer, lessee of the old theatre in Grünstübel-Haus. Important new findings here include an analysis of the owners of the loge boxes in Csáky’s theatre in relation to their social career and property assets. It is equally important to shed light on the financial background of the theatre performances and carnival entertainment during Krimer’s time, as it is clearly evident that the theatre performances accounted for less than a third of his total revenue. Therefore, even in the case of Csáky’s theatre, the construction of a Redoute or a ballroom was planned to make the theatre worth opening at all.