he design of the new building was begun in the early 1980s, and construction started in 1986. Due to a lack of funds, the building was under construction (with long interruptions) for 21 years, which increased the planned costs from 874 million to almost 5 billion Slovak crowns (although this figure is exaggerated by the relatively high inflation of the 1990s). The building was finally opened on April 14, 2007 and it houses all three ensembles of the Slovak National Theatre, although the ensembles continue to use the old building in the Old Town in parallel. The building is designed to hold 1700 spectators at a time in its three sections.