On the site of the former historical buildings that stand between today's Laurinská, Štúrova, and Gorkého Streets, a bank and a theatre were built in the 1940s to 1950s according to a project by the architects Eugen Kramár and Štefan Lukačovič. The project was based on modified designs from an architectural competition held in 1941. The original starting point of the design had been interwar functionalism, later modifications reflected the monumentalism of the time, and in the early 1950s the buildings incorporated artistic elements in the spirit of socialist realism. 

The façade of the current P. O. Hviezdoslav Theatre (originally a seat of the Slovak National Theatre Drama), oriented towards the present Laurinská Street, has since 1953 been decorated with three artistic accents at second floor level – realistically rendered statues of naked girls standing in contrapposto on consoles with convex–concave folded front surfaces. Sculpted from marlite in slightly larger-than-life size, they metaphorically represented Drama, Poetry, and Ballet. The traditional symbols of each figure were also depicted – a mask in the right hand of Drama and a booklet in the left hand of Poetry. 

Although the central statue, Poetry, was removed in the 1960s due to its poor technical condition – the space has remained vacant – the statues Drama (to the left when looking at the façade) and Ballet (to the right) survive to this day.

PB

Research status as of 15. 05. 2023.