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UpMikloši č evacestaandontheleftistheprominent Grand Hotel Union, withastately
domed spire on the corner. When these buildings were designed, Prague was the cultural
capital of the Slavic world. The new look of Ljubljana paid homage to “the golden city of
a hundred spires” (and copied Prague's romantic image). The city actually had a law for
several years that new corner buildings had to have these spires. Even the trees you'll see
around town were part of the vision. When the architect Ple č nik designed the Ljubljanica
River embankments a generation later, he planted tall, pointy poplar trees and squat, roun-
ded willows—imitating the spires and domes of Prague.
Detour a block up Mikloši č eva cesta to see two more architectural gems of that era
(across from the Grand Hotel Union): First is a Secessionist building—marked Zadružna
Zveza —with classic red, blue, and white colors (for the Slovenian flag). Next is the noisy,
pink, zigzagged Cooperative Bank. The bank was designed by Ivan Vurnik, an ambitious
Slovenian architect who wanted to invent a distinctive national style after World War I,
when the Habsburg Empire broke up and Eastern Europe's nations were proudly emerging
for the first time.
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