Large festival hall

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Entrance side Hofstallgasse

The Großer Festspielhaus in Salzburg (from 1960 to 1962 Neues Festspielhaus , since 1963 Großes Festspielhaus ) is one of the venues of the Salzburg Festival and is located in the old town , it is partly built into the Mönchsberg .

history

Front of Herbert von Karajan Platz

Former prince-archbishop stables

The large festival hall belonged together with the house for Mozart (i.e. the formerly small festival hall ), the Felsenreitschule and the city hall to the former prince-archbishop's stables ( Hofmarstall ) . They were built under Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau in 1606 and 1607, and the Marstallschwemme at today's Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz also belonged to the complex . In 1662 this building was expanded and the winter riding school was set up, where the house for Mozart is today. Another expansion took place under Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun . The summer riding school , today's Felsenreitschule , and the facade on the northern narrow side facing Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz and Marstallschwemme were designed according to plans by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach in 1693/94.

Hofstall barracks and house of nature

North portal of the festival hall by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach

After the end of the prince archbishopric in 1803 the house was a cavalry barracks , the Hofstallkaserne . The riding school was adapted, expanded and covered as a kk cavalry riding arena in 1841. In 1859 the main house was extended. Cavalry detachments were housed up to the second third of the 19th century , and from then on artillery was also mixed . After the First World War , the First Federal Army was also stationed here.

From the founding in 1924, the House of Nature also found its place here, which moved to the abandoned Ursuline monastery in 1959 .

Construction of the Great Festival Hall

According to plans by the Austrian architect Clemens Holzmeister , the idea of ​​a second opera and concert hall was put into practice. This was built next to the already existing Festspielhaus (today's House for Mozart ). Between 1956 and 1960, 55,000 cubic meters of Mönchsberg were first removed for the new building in order to have enough space, especially for the stage, and then the festival hall was built.

Opening and world premieres

The Great Festival Hall was opened on July 26, 1960 with Richard Strauss ' opera Der Rosenkavalier under the direction of Herbert von Karajan , with this work three of the most important personalities of the Salzburg Festival, namely Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Max Reinhardt (who was "Secret director" had supervised the premiere).

In the Great Festival Hall were u. a. the following works premiered:

Equipment and technology of the large festival hall

Auditorium and stage

Technical data: Stage
width: 100 meters
Stage depth: 25 meters Portal
width: 30 meters
Portal height: 9 meters
Five lifting platforms of 18 × 3 meters; Travel speed max. 0.25 m / s; Load capacity 20 t each. Hydraulic stage machinery (double system from ABB)
Schnürboden: 155 drawbars with a load capacity of 500 kg each, one third of which is hydraulically driven and electronically controllable.
Lighting: 825 controllable circuits with an output of at least 5000 watts each; digital lighting control desk; 2000 spotlights in the
electroacoustics equipment park : sound control desk with 16 inputs, 16 sum outputs and 4 auxiliary outputs; Connections for loudspeakers and microphones in the entire stage and audience area
The stage technology and other modernizations also come from the Viennese company Waagner Biro.

The wide auditorium has an almost square floor plan with a side length of approx. 35 meters and has 2179 seats (there is no standing room).

The orchestra pit can hold up to 110 musicians.

Artistic arrangement

Mask block by Jakob Adlhart

The floor of the foyer is made of Adnet marble , the floor of the break room is made of green serpentine with horse mosaics by Richard Kurt Fischer . There are also numerous works of art here:

The marble portal on the north-facing facade to Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz is the work of the baroque architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach . It was financed from the spoils of the Turkish War of 1683, in which Salzburg sent 800 men to relieve the Turkish siege of Vienna and in 1688 also took part in the conquest of Belgrade under Prince Eugene of Savoy . The female figures on the portal represent Europe and Asia ; that they sit on unicorns has only been known since the last renovation. Another special feature of this gate is a light breakthrough upwards through which light could fall on the heads of the horses brought to the horse pond.

On the facade facing Hofstallgasse is the following saying written by the Benedictine Father Thomas Michels : SACRA CAMENAE DOMUS / CONCITIS CARMINE PATET / QUO NOS ATTONITOS / NUMEN AD AURAS FERAT ('The muse holy house is open to art enthusiasts, as inflamed carry us up divine power') .

literature

  • Andrea Gottdang / Ingonda Hannesschläger (eds.): Das Große Festspielhaus: Clemens Holzmeister's Gesamtkunstwerk , Salzburg: Artbook 2018 (Kunststandort Salzburg; 2), ISBN 978-3-903078-20-8 .

Web links

Commons : Großes Festspielhaus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Erhard Koppensteiner: The Christian Doppler Gymnasium, built as a kuk infantry battalion barracks in Salzburg-Lehen. Contributions to its building, art and military history. In: Landesgeschichte aktuell No. 137, December 2006, 1. On the barracks system in Salzburg , p. 20 , column 2 (full article, pp. 20–26; article, pdf, rainerregiment.at ( memento from December 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ); whole booklet, pdf, salzburger-geschichte.at , there p. 1)
  2. References of the stage technology division from Waagner Biro
  3. Overview of the seating categories
  4. ^ Friederike Zaisberger : History of Salzburg. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-7028-0354-8 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 47 '55 "  N , 13 ° 2' 28"  E