Vienna State Opera

You're standing in front of one of the world's most famous opera houses, a massive Neo Renaissance building that dominates this corner of the Ringstrasse.

It opened on May 25, 1869 with Mozart's Don Giovanni. The emperor and empress attended. But the two men who built it never made it to opening night.

August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll won the competition to design the opera house in 1858. Construction started in 1861. Then the city made a mistake. After they'd already begun building, Vienna raised the street level of the Ringstrasse by a meter. The building suddenly looked too low. Critics tore into it. They called it a "sunken box." One columnist wrote that despite charming details, it sat heavy on its site, sinking into the ground.

Van der Nüll killed himself in April 1868. His partner Sicardsburg died just 10 weeks later, likely from the shock. Neither architect saw their masterpiece completed.

On March 12, 1945, American bombs set the opera house on fire. The auditorium and stage burned for two days. Around 150,000 costumes were destroyed. But the ornate entrance hall and grand staircase survived. The opera reopened 10 years later on November 5, 1955.