New Issues 2020: Slovenia (Architecture)

Post of Slovenia | Stamps-Slovenia | WOPA+

31 January 2020

Architecture in Slovenia — Municipal Savings Bank, Ljubljana

Release date: 31.1.2020
Design: Robert Žvokelj, DAK
Motive: Municipal Savings Bank, Ljubljana
Print: Agencija za komercijalnu djelatnost d.o.o., Zagreb, Croatia
Technique: 4-colour offset in miniature sheet of 1 stamp
Paper: Tullis Russell Chancellor Litho PVA RMS GUM, 102 g/m2
Perforation: Harrow 14 : 14

Architecture in Slovenia – Municipal Savings Bank, Ljubljana
Municipal Savings Bank, Ljubljana

The Ljubljana Municipal Savings Bank was built in 1904 to a design by the Sarajevo architect Josip Vancaš. Designs for the new bank were invited by the management via a public competition announced in 1902 in trade papers in Vienna, Prague and Zagreb. Three designs reached the shortlist and Vancaš’s design was awarded the second prize by the competition jury, which later entrusted him with its realisation. Owing to the limited funding available, only the first floor of the building was to be used for the savings bank, something that was already made clear at the competition stage. The ground floor would be occupied by shops, while the top two storeys would be taken up by flats.

The Municipal Savings Bank in Ljubljana is one of Vancaš’s earlier works, from the period of his transition to the style of the Vienna Secession. The design is actually a copy of his earlier design for the First Croatian Savings Bank in Zagreb, adapted to conditions in Ljubljana. Secession elements are still mixed with late historicist elements such as the ornate floridity of the façade, the over-articulation of façade surfaces and decorative motifs. The relatively long frontage is symmetrically divided into three vertical bands, with a slightly projecting central section adorned with two allegorical statues personifying commerce and trade on the one hand and craft and industry on the other. The main entrance, with its glass and wrought iron canopy in the form of spreading petals and its hanging sign, was clearly influenced by the Franco-Belgian variant of art nouveau.

Tatjana Adamič