Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna

The Wiener Staatsoper is the opera house before you, a landmark venue for opera and an opera company in Vienna. Its Neo-Renaissance design came from August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll, with construction running from 1861 to 1869. The building opened on 25 May 1869 with Mozart’s Don Juan, in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Look at the entrance arcade, the grand stairway and the loggia above it: this portion survived the wartime fire, along with the foyer decorated by Moritz von Schwind. The polished Kaiserstein used for the stairway is especially notable, because the rest of the interior contains many kinds of marble. During the bombing of 1945, fire destroyed the auditorium, the stage and almost all the scenery and costumes.

The entrance section remained intact, so the restored opera house still carries original historic interiors there. Its history also includes a sharp change in public opinion: when the building opened, critics mocked its appearance after the street level was raised during construction. Today, the surviving foyer and stairway connect that difficult beginning with a building that has endured fire, criticism and reconstruction.