★★★★★ 5.0
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State Opera
You know what's wild? You're standing in front of the only opera house in the world that was bombed, burned, rebuilt, and then had its opening night broadcast... to the enemy that destroyed it! Yeah, the Vienna State Opera got absolutely flattened by Allied bombs on March 12th, 1945, and when it finally reopened in 1955, they beamed Beethoven's Fidelio straight to Soviet-occupied zones as this massive peace gesture. Look up at that Renaissance arch facade – see those bronze statues up there? Before this beauty went up in 1869, this exact spot was Vienna's old city walls and a medieval jousting ground where knights literally fought to the death. The architect Eduard van der Nüll was so devastated by critics calling his masterpiece a "sunken box" that he hanged himself before opening night... his partner August von Sicardsburg died of a heart attack two months later, so neither creator ever saw their 2,200-seat marvel packed with people. Here's what tourists never know – every single morning at 10 AM, stagehands change the entire 50-ton stage floor using a hydraulic system from 1955 that still runs on its original motors. And if you sneak around to the Operngasse side entrance at 10:55 AM any performance day, you can catch the Vienna Phil musicians rushing in for their secret one-hour rehear
Did You Know?
- The State Opera was originally opened in 1888 as the New German Theater, built by Prague's German community in response to the Czech National Theatre, and it was designed by the famous Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer—the same team behind many of Europe’s grandest theaters. Its grand Neo-Renaissance exterior and lavish Neo-Rococo interior still make it one of Prague’s largest and most opulent venues for opera and ballet, with a stage and seating capacity that surpasses even the National Theatre.
- In 1938, as Nazi persecution escalated in Germany, the State Opera became a refuge for artists fleeing the Third Reich, offering a stage to those whose careers were threatened at home. During World War II, after Czechoslovakia was occupied, the theater was used for political assemblies by the Nazis, but after the war, it was renamed the Smetana Theater and began focusing on Czech operas, later shifting to international repertoire under the communist regime.
- The State Opera stands on the site of the old Novoměstské divadlo (New City Theatre), a wooden summer theater built in 1859 that was plagued by fires. When it was demolished, the German community raised funds independently to build a grand new theater, which opened with Wagner’s 'The Mastersingers of Nuremberg.' Fun fact for families: the theater’s story is a bit like a phoenix rising from the ashes—twice!—first from the ashes of the old wooden theater, and then symbolically after its post-war rebirth as a Czech cultural institution.