The database of theatre architecture is a project that was initiated by the ATI and that is being implemented in cooperation with other institutions in several European countries and with the support of the European Union, ministries of culture, and other organisations.
The creation of the database was one of the main outcomes of a project titled ‘Theatre Architecture in Central Europe – TACE’, conducted in 2008-2011 and supported by a grant from the EU Culture programme. The technical design was developed as part of work on the project and entries on more than two hundred theatre buildings were inserted into the database. The extensive encyclopaedic entries were composed by experts in architectural history and they are the product of in-depth archive research. The database contains entries on theatres in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia. All the entries are published in the database in the language of the country the given theatre is located in, along with an English translation. The entries are accompanied by a rich array of illustrations and include basic technical information. As well as other images, the theatres can also be displayed on a Map of Theatres, where theatres can be filtered by date of origin, and on a historical Timeline.
In 2012–2017 the ATI, as the administrator of the database, was a partner in the European Route of Historic Theatres (ERHT), a project that was conducted by Perspective – Association of Historic Theatres in Europe, which is based in Berlin, and that was also supported by a grant from the European Union’s Culture programme. The outcome of the project will help to expand the database to include entries on other European countries. The project’s focus on historic theatres also offers a more detailed treatment of these oftentimes very unique structures, so that as well as information on the structural history of the theatres the entries can include details about surviving historic technical equipment, decorations, costumes, and more.
For an example, see the Castle Theatre in Český Krumlov.
