Joze Plecnik

Joze Plecnik

MY HERO IS Jože Plecnik, the most famous Slovenian architect.

He was born on 23 January 1872 in a modest house near the centre of Ljubljana as the third of four children. Because he was not very good at school, he had to join his father in his joinery workshop. Later he finished school in Gratz, in Austria.

In Vienna, after a year of working with the architect Otto Wagner, he enrolled in the academy in 1895. After three years, he graduated with flying colours, which brought him a scholarship, with the help of which he travelled around Italy and France.

After his return, he spent another year with Wagner. In 1901, he opened his own architectural studio in Ljubljana. From 1911 he taught at College of Arts and Crafts in Prague, and from 1921 at Technical Faculty in Ljubljana. He never got married, and devoted his life to architecture only. He died on 7 January 1957 in Ljubljana.

His work comprises Zacherl Palace and the Church of Holy Ghost in Vienna, Hradchany and the Church of Sacred Heart in Prague and, most importantly, his transformation of Ljubljana from a provincial town into the capital of Slovenia, which took him over three and a half decades. In Ljubljana we can admire the National and University Library, which is considered his most important work in Slovenia, Triple Bridge, Shoemaker's Bridge, the Market, the banks of the River Ljubljanica, Cemetery Zale, the Church of St Francis, the Church of St Cyril and Method, Ljubljana Stadium, the restoration of Krizanke Monastery…

He is important to me because he built Triple Bridge and the National and University Library, the two things I like a lot. If we had not had him, we would not have so many beautiful attractions.