Josef Kajetán Tyl Theatre

The Josef Kajetán Tyl Theatre (Divadlo Josefa Kajetána Tyla) is Plzeň's main opera and drama theatre, housed in one of the finest theatre buildings in the Czech Republic. The neo-Baroque façade, with its ornate stone figures and grand arched windows, gives the surrounding streets a weight and grandeur unusual in a city of Plzeň's size.

The interior is equally impressive: a gilded auditorium with stalls and three tiers of boxes, painted ceiling with allegorical murals, and the kind of red-velvet atmosphere that makes an evening at the opera feel properly ceremonial. The theatre runs a full season of opera, ballet, and drama from September to June, performed in Czech with subtitles for major productions. Ticket prices are very reasonable compared to Prague or Vienna. Even if you do not attend a performance, the building is worth seeing from outside, and guided tours of the interior run on certain days — ask at the theatre box office.

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A story
The theatre was built in 1902 and named after the Czech playwright and patriot Josef Kajetán Tyl, who wrote the text to the Czech national anthem "Kde domov můj?" (Where Is My Home?). Tyl spent part of his career in Plzeň, which is why the city has a particular claim on his legacy. The building was designed in a neo-Baroque style by the Vienna architects Helmer and Fellner, the prolific duo responsible for dozens of Central European opera houses in the late 19th century.