The Great Festival Hall

One of the most impressive venues of the Salzburg Festival.

The Great Festival Hall in Hofstallgasse was built between 1956 and 1960 according to plans by architect Clemens Holzmeister and is one of the most impressive venues of the Salzburg Festival. In front of its gates, the high society of the Salzburg Festival meets curious visitors and an international group of photographers every year. Before the big premieres, luxury limousines lined up in the Hofstallgasse with their "golden" toppings.

Building history
Work on the Great Festival Theatre began in 1956 with the removal of around 55,000 cubic metres of conglomerate from the Mönchsberg wall in order to make room for the enormous stage. Clemens Holzmeister had already made a name for himself in the 1920s as the master builder of the Small Festival Theatre. The original façade of the Hofmarstall could be kept almost unchanged for the building, which was specially designed as a festival theatre. The former Marstall was converted into a break room. Floor mosaics with horse heads remind us of its actual purpose. With a total width of 100 metres, the Great Festival Hall is one of the largest in the world. It was opened on 26 July 1960 with Richard Strauss' "Rosenkavalier" under the direction of Herbert von Karajan.

A House for Art Enthusiasts
Inside the Great Festival Theatre there are numerous works of art such as the sculptures "Theatre" and "Music" by Wander Bertoni made of Carrara marble, four large crosses on the theme "Dreams with the Wrong Solutions" by Robert Longo (Blue "Print on the sky"), Red "fire prayers", gold "lamentations in public" and black "songs of surrender"), ceramic sculptures by Arno Lehmann, the "12-tone frieze" in homage to Anton von Webern by Rudolf Hoflehner and murals by Wolfgang Hutter and Rudolf Plattner.

Contact:
Das Große Festspielhaus
Hofstallgasse 1
5020 Salzburg
Tel. +43 (0)662 8045 0