Arena Theatre, Bratislava

Arena Theatre is one of the oldest public theatres in the city of Bratislava. It was built in 1828 on the Petržalka bank of the Danube river, in the vicinity of a historic park. Originally, the theatre was conceived as a summer outdoor stage, hence the name Arena. In 1898 a new covered theatre building was erected on the original site and the new theatre appearance has remained almost unchanged until nowadays. Since its foundation until the end of the World War II many Hungarian, Austrian and German theatre groups performed at Arena. One of them came from a popular Vienna theatre Theatre an der Wien, which performed here regularly since 1921.

Since 2003 Arena Theatre has also been organizing a unique summer holidays project in cooperation with Comenius University of Bratislava – the Children Comenius University. Every year during the months of July and August hundreds of 9- to 13-year-old children from the whole Slovakia have a chance to experience a life of university students. The Children University project includes lectures on many interesting topics brought by famous university professors and adapted to the children´s age. Upon completing the presentations every participant graduates from the Children University and receives a Children University Graduate Diploma.