Opera House, Vienna

In 1857, the medieval wall around Vienna was replaced by the Ringstrasse. Just after this, Emperor Franz Joseph I decided to build a stately opera house and hired the architects, Sicardsburg and van der Null. Due to the level of the Ringstrasse being raised, the Opera House was now lower than the road and appeared to sink into the ground, whether it was criticism or other circumstances, van der Null committed suicide before the opera house was completed in 1868. Neither architect lived to see the opening, as Sicardsburg died of a stroke shortly before it was completed.

The Opera House opened in 1869, with a performance of Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’. The Opera House was a huge success from the start, until when under the Nazi regime from 1938-1945, many members of the house were driven out, pursued and killed, and many productions were not allowed to be performed. A bomb hit the Opera House in 1945 causing heavy damage, and the reconstruction work took 10 years to complete.