Architect	Clemens Holzmeister
Date Built	1956 - 1960
Location	Hofstallgasse
Description
Work on the Grosses Festspielhaus began in 1956 with the removal of around 55,000 m³ of conglomerate rock from the side of the Mönchsberg, that can be seen above looming over the building.  The former royal stables, seen above right, with the round-topped archways, were remodeled into a breakroom. Its original purpose is marked by the floor mosaics depicting horses’ heads . The "www.salzburg.info" website says of the concert hall that, "... the Grosses Festspielhaus is one of the biggest concert halls in the world. It was officially opened on July 26, 1960 with a performance of Richard Strauss’s Rosenkavalier under the direction of Herbert von Karajan." "The iron stage curtain weighs 34 tonnes and in the middle is one metre thick. The ground steel plates were created by Rudolf Hoflehner; the main curtain behind it was designed by Leo Wollner."(www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/) When we toured the backstage people commented on what they thought was a squirrel running around.  It turned out that the concert hall has a resident dormouse that once made an appearance on stage during a performance, an event that members of the audience thought was part of the show.

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