Congress Square

The square after the 2011 renovation

Congress Square (Slovene: Kongresni trg) is one of the central squares in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.

The square was built in 1821 at the site of the ruins of a medieval Capuchin monastery, which had been abolished during the reign of Habsburg Emperor Joseph II. The square was used for ceremonial purposes during the Congress of Ljubljana, after which it was named. After the congress, a park was laid out in the center of the square, which soon acquired the name Star Park (Slovene: Park Zvezda) due to its layout. During the communist period it was renamed to Revolution Square and few years later to Liberation Square (Slovene: Trg osvoboditve), but the local population continued to use the old name. In 1990, it regained its original name.

Congress Square in the early 19th century

Austro-Hungarian military parade in 1909

Proclamation of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on October 29th 1918

Congress Square's neighboring park Zvezda (Star Park) was used as a field to produce food during the Italian occupation

The square has had a highly symbolic role in modern Slovenian history. On October 29, 1918, independence from Austrian-Hungarian rule and the establishment of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was proclaimed during a mass demonstration on the square.

Congress Square during the celebration of the liberation of Belgrade

In May 1945, the Yugoslav Communist leader Josip Broz Tito first visited Slovenia after World War II and held a speech on the balcony of the University of Ljubljana, which faces the square.

The square between the world wars

On June 22, 1988, the first free mass demonstration was held on the square demanding the release of four Slovene journalists imprisoned by the Yugoslav army. The demonstration marked the beginning of the Slovenian spring which culminated in the declaration of Slovenia's independence on June 25, 1991. Independence was first demanded in the May Declaration, written by the Slovenian democratic opposition and signed by numerous civil society movements; the declaration was first publicly read by the poet Tone Pavček in a demonstration on Congress Square on May 8, 1989. In 1999 Bill Clinton became the first U.S. president to visit Slovenia. On June 21, he publicly addressed the crowd gathered on Congress Square, quoting the opening verses of the Slovenian national anthem.^[1][2]

Buildings and monuments

Several important buildings face the square. Among them, there is the early Baroque Ursuline Church of the Holy Trinity, the Kazina building, one of the few Neoclassical buildings remaining in Ljubljana after the earthquake of 1895, the Slovenian Philharmonic building, and the rectorate of the University of Ljubljana, formerly the seat of the Provincial Diet of the Duchy of Carniola. The prestigious Slovenska matica publishing house also has its seat on the square.

During the Austro-Hungarian period, a monument to the Austrian General Joseph Radetzky, who was married to a Carniolan noblewoman and lived in Ljubljana in the last years of his life, stood in the park on the square. The monument was removed in 1919 and placed in the National Museum.

In the late 1930s, the square was renovated by the prominent Slovene architect Jože Plečnik. New trees on the park were planted, most of which are still there today. In 1940, an equestrian statue of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia created by the architect Lojze Dolinar was erected in the middle of the square. In 1941, the statue was removed by the Fascist Italian occupation forces. In 1954, after the formal annexation of Zone B of the Free Territory of Trieste to Yugoslavia, an anchor of the Italian ocean liner SS Rex, sunk near Koper during World War II, was placed in the park to symbolize victory over Italian expansionism and the union of the Slovenian Littoral with the rest of Slovenia.

Several other monuments also stand on the square: Jože Plečnik's memorial to the women who protested against the political imprisonment of Slovene patriots during the Italian occupation of the Province of Ljubljana, a fountain with drinking water designed by the architect Boris Kobe, and a replica of a golden Roman monument found among the ruins of Emona. A Biedermeier bandstand from the 1830s also stands in the park.

In December 2004 the artist Matej Andraž Vogrinčič set up an "Enchanted Forest" in the square consisting of 1,000 potted fir trees. The trees were later donated to the Slovene Forestry Institute, which used them to reforest areas in the north-west of the country ^[3]

• 

  The anchor of the ocean liner SS Rex

• 

  Kazina

• 

  The main building of the University of Ljubljana, formerly the Carniolan State Mansion

• 

  The bandstand

• 

  Ursuline Church of the Holy Trinity

• 

  Slovenian Philharmonic

• 

  The Slovenska matica building

• 

  Boris Kobe's "city fountain" in Congress Square

• 

  A roman well that was found during the 2010/11 renovation

References

1. ^ http://www.rtvslo.si/kultura/drugo/foto-zgodbe-ki-so-se-dogajale-na-kongresnem-trgu/260463
2. ^ http://www.rtvslo.si/kultura/razstave/kongresni-trg-kjer-se-je-pisala-zgodovina-slovenije/253129
3. ^ "Vogrincic Turns Ljubljana Park into Enchanted Forrest". UKom.gov. 2004-12-21. Archived from the original on 2008-02-29. http://web.archive.org/web/20080229130717/http://www.ukom.gov.si/eng/slovenia/publications/slovenia-news/1520/1532/. Retrieved 2008-03-19. 

Coordinates: 46°03′01″N 14°30′13″E / 46.05028°N 14.50361°E / 46.05028; 14.50361