Idea description:

Bratislava is a town with an incredible history, monuments and historical sights. Even today, we find that we have or had valuable historical material construction documents of specific eras in our town … Here is included the Stations of the Cross and Calvary – a sacral complex from 1694, which existed until the 50´s of the 20th century when it was for political reasons systematically liquidated and finally destroyed.

We decided to revive the Stations of the Cross at Calvary in Bratislava at least in the form of photographs that capture the same place today and many years ago. We just want to remind you that this wonderful place is still here on earth, now in this time. We decided to put on paper the idea of possible future embodiment of the Stations of the Cross, as we drew it from history and genius loci of this place.

The first point of the draft is the concept of road, replacement of that part cut by the Prague street downhill so that all stations fit into the rest. It formed a ring incorporated into forest in the form of supporting wall used as a bench. The second point is design of stations. As we know, due to historical photographs, how the most of them looked like, we started there. The size and proportion of the station would be based on the original form because it is pleasant to humans. The material would not be bricks, but stone in order to avoid dismantling. The rest will be roughly treated like a rock. The arch remains open without railings, without rear wall so that the man could pass through the arch of the station and survive his way. Statues on the side of the chapel would have gone back as replicas on the ground next to the man going through the time with him up to the cross. Regarding the upper Church of the Holy Cross, which stood behind the three crosses of Golgotha, we propose to do archaeological research and to retain the object edge out of residues of stone foundations, to distribute benches and create outdoor space of the church in the open air, with a view to Golgotha and city views. This would create a comprehensive set of public space on the hill “Kalvarien Berg” over Bratislava in today´s world, in the present form… for today’s man…

  • Author: hantabal architekti s. r. o.
  • Ing. arch. Juraj Hantabal, Ing. arch. Michaela Hantabalová, PhDr. Viera Obuchová, CSc., Ing. arch. Soňa Pavolová
  • www.hantabal.com