Franjo Neidhardt

Together with his colleagues Dragan Boltar and Vladimir Turina, Yugoslavian architect Franjo Neidhardt, from what is now Croatia, received an Honorable Mention for his work Project for “Great Stadium for Belgrade“ at the 1948 London Olympics in the Art Competitions in the category Architecture, Architectural Design. The design for the Great (Olympic) Stadium of Beograd dates back to 1947, when the team was awarded the first prize of a tender. The stadium was to be built in the Beograd district of Banjica to accommodate 80,000 spectators. The design was characterized by two semicircular opposite shells and tried to reconcile the theoretical and technical requirements. However, the project did not go beyond the planning phase.

Neidhardt received another honorable mention for his work Project for Stadium for Zagreb in the same category solely with Turina. The football stadium in Zagreb is the largest in the city and named after the district in which it is located, Maksimir Stadium. Located on the site of an old stadium from 1912, it was built in the late 1940s according to plans by Neidhardt and Turina from 1946. Except for the catalog of the art exhibition, most sources also mention Eugen Erlich as the third architect. Over a period of 15 years, sections of the building were completed successively. The entire complex also included a second, smaller stadium, a swimming pool, a sports hall and the corresponding infrastructure. In 1998, a major refurbishment of the stadium began, but could not be completed. Later, the original capacity of 64,000 spectators had to be reduced significantly due to the installation of seats. In 2011, further minor improvements were made. Neidhardt mainly built sport stadiums. His better known brother Juraj (1901-1979) worked with Le Corbusier during 1930s.