ABSTRACT
Ljubljana was clearly defined as the capital of Slovenes after the constitution of the “tri-tribal” South Slavs kingdom. Fueled by new optimism for expressing the newly gained national freedom, the two most dominant Slovenian architects, Ivan Vurnik and Jože Plečnik, both educated in Vienna, founded two competing curricula at Ljubljana Faculty of Architecture, established in 1919. Although initially invited by Vurnik to join the faculty, after teaching at Jan Kotěra’s academy in Prague, Plečnik managed to grow into a more influential teacher as well as the leading conceptualizer of Ljubljana’s identity as the national capital. Despite his undisputable creativity, rooted in his Catholic faith, Plečnik proved to be one of the most well-considered students of Otto Wagner and followers of Camilo Sitte’s teachings about the. Despite his anti-Modernist path during the later phase of his career, the influence he had on his Slovenian pupils could be compared to Antoni Gaudi’s and Alvar Aalto’s.
