Architecture of Austria

Since the epoch of Romanesque there is (post-antique) architecture that still exists today. The best-known example of a Romanesque sacred building on Austrian soil would be the cathedral at Gurk in Carinthia. This epoch is replaced by the Gothic, which prevails in the Austrian region only after 1250, but remains hegemonic until after 1500. St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna is the most important example of the Gothic style, even in international comparison. Renaissance is hardly present in the east of Austria, because of the constant wars against the Ottoman Empire, the means of building are missing. This architectural style is therefore more likely to be found in Graz or Innsbruck (at that time residences of Habsburg branch lines) or in small rural towns, which experience an economic decline in the following period. All the more striking in Austria is the baroque style, which only begins around 1690 (almost a hundred years late), but dominates the image of the vast majority of city centers. At that time, Austrian architecture not only experienced a tremendous construction boom, but also achieved European validity for the first time. In addition, almost all of the older religious buildings (including those listed above) are baroque-shaped. After each boom, there is usually a period of exhaustion: accordingly, Rococo and earlier Classicism are relatively weak. In the first half of the 19th century, new construction projects, such as residential buildings and office buildings, are being built in a classically understated style that is very much appreciated today. From the 1860s on, especially in Vienna, there is a second major building boom with the construction of the Ringstrasse and the regulation of the Wien River. Not only historical buildings of great prestige, but also the factories and apartment buildings of the suburbs, which are often put on the green meadow and let the cities expand rapidly. At the end of this phase (around 1900), Art Nouveau experiences its brief, meteoric hegemony, soon to pass into a new objectivity trained in Classicism. All this takes place with violent irritation of the audience. This neo-classicism remains dominant until the 1950s. More recently, modern (or not yet definable) styles of modernism or postmodernism have been built, and here too, a great deal of international significance has been built, for example on the Danube plate in Vienna.

Baroque : Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt
Art Nouveau : Otto Wagner, Richard Neutra
Opponents of Art Nouveau : Adolf Loos
Modern: Gustav Peichl, Hans Hollein, Clemens Holzmeister, Roland Rainer
The city center of Salzburg was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
The city center of Graz was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999.
The city center of Vienna was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2001.
Famous Buildings: St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Schönbrunn Palace, Hofburg Palace, Belvedere Palace, Hohensalzburg Fortress, Golden Roof, Graz Clock Tower, Hellbrunn Palace, Esterházy Palace (Eisenstadt)

Theater
As in other European countries, the theater goes back to medieval sacred games. From the pictorial representation of the Easter Liturgy developed in the late Middle Ages increasingly complex forms of the Passion Play, which is still maintained in some places today. After the time of the Reformation, hostile to the theater, the theater underwent a tremendous upswing during the Baroque period. Above all, the Jesuits, the intellectual spearhead of the Counter-Reformation, recognized the propagandistic possibilities of this medium and did not immediately (though of course with a moralizing tendency) even directly related to the liturgy substances. In addition, there is also a secular current of theater, which has mainly to do with popular entertainment, especially in carnival. They reach their peak in the late medieval carnival games. A more intellectual branch of the theater are the tribute games, especially those of the Renaissance, such as the Schottenabtes Benedictus Chelidonius.

The most significant influence on the Central European theatrical tradition is the Baroque opera written at the beginning of the 17th century; the first north of the Alps took place in Salzburg under Prince Archbishop Markus Sittikus von Hohenems. This art form proved to be ideal for the representational needs of absolutism, and a large part of the court could be included simply because of the complexity of the productions. The opera was regarded as the most distinguished form of art throughout the 18th century and in Vienna, especially during the reign of the “composing emperors” (Ferdinand III, Leopold I and Charles VI), the crème of Italian composers, librettists and theater engineers worked.

In addition, the folk theater, which is mainly used by traveling troupes, was the most famous figure, and Josef Anton Stranitzky, the inventor of the buffoon figurine. In Vienna, this theater was able to hold its own against the Gottsched- inspired theater reformers – the popular theater of the Biedermeier period dates back to this very period. In general, the theater experienced a tremendous upswing in the Vormärz, which was also reflected in the founding of new theater buildings – the Theater an der Wien is still preserved from this period. The popularity of the theater in the Vormärz can also be explained by the fact that social criticism was often used in hidden form, especially in the “Viennese Shakespeare” Nestroy. Nestroy is precisely because of its ambiguity today still the most-played author of this tradition, he understood it (after Egon Friedell) to use the comedy forms as “Emballage” (camouflage for contraband) to bring the “forbidden goods, namely philosophy, to the theater “.

In 1776, the Hofburgtheater was declared by the German National Theater by Joseph II, not least to promote the German-speaking theater opposite the Italian-speaking. In the middle of the 19th century, the Burgtheater became a purely spoken theater, which was mainly oriented on the works of world literature.

The opera, too, retained its importance and remained a phenomenon of mass entertainment until well into the twentieth century, despite its bourgeois-aristocratic touch. More popular was the form of the operetta, which came to Vienna in the 1860s and immediately became home here and also found a new center. However, this is a theatrical tradition that came to an abrupt end with the seizure of power by the National Socialists and the expulsion of many composers and musicians.

Salzburg Festival 2014
In the twentieth century, the theater also broke new ground in the theater. The 1920 Salzburg Festival was a milestone in the history of theater, and in its form a return to the late medieval consecration games. Following this model, numerous theater festivals took place in Central Europe, such as the Wiener Festwochen.

In the later 20th century, especially in the 1970s, there was a new theatrical boom, the accent was here on experimental pieces and forms, which were often played by free companies.

Major theaters in Vienna : Burgtheater, Akademietheater, Volkstheater, Schauspielhaus, Theater in der Josefstadt, Vienna’s English Theater
Important stages in the provinces: Schauspielhaus (Graz), Salzburger Landestheater, Felsenreitschule, Landestheater Linz, Tiroler Landestheater, Seebühne
Well-known dramas and plays: Heroes’ Square, Everyman, King Ottokar’s luck and end, A fraternal beating in Habsburg, Anatol, Liebelei, The dance, public abuse
Popular comedies and antics : Woe to him who is lying!, The evil spirit Lumpazivagabundus, A Jux he wants to make, To ground level and first floor, The girl from the suburb, The Barometer maker on the magic island, The spendthrift, The Alpine King and the misanthrope, The farmer as a millionaire
Important drama schools : Max Reinhardt Seminar
Well-known actors: Alexander Girardi, Attila Hörbiger, Paula Wessely
Major directors: Martin Kušej

Cabaret
The cabaret scene has a special cultural significance in Austria. She manages to develop her own flair between comedy, theater and entertainment as part of a cultural event, usually with political or everyday, sometimes critical content, using her own Austrian humor, which is country-specific in this form. Known today’s cabaret artists include Lukas Resetarits, Josef Hader, Alfred Dorfer, Roland Düringer and Alf Poier, some of whom have occupied the relevant stages for decades and are also being received in German-speaking countries. Similarly, Austria looks back historically on a long cabaret tradition, even if this was abruptly interrupted between 1938 and 1945 and suffered for example by the murder of Fritz Grünbaum in the Dachau concentration camp irretrievable losses. The most famous Austrian cabaret prize is the Salzburg Bull.

Cabaret tradition before 1938 and after 1945: Fritz Grünbaum, Karl Farkas, Ernst Waldbrunn, Maxi Böhm, Gerhard Bronner, Cissy Kraner, Georg Kreisler, Jura Soyfer
Representative of the “political cabaret” of the 80s: Hans Peter Heinzl, Erwin Steinhauer, Lukas Resetarits, Werner Schneyder
Well-known cabaret artists of today: Josef Hader, Alfred Dorfer, Roland Düringer, Alf Poier, Dolores Schmidinger, Michael Niavarani, Andreas Vitasek
Cabaret stages: Simpl, Vindobona, Metropol

Museums
MuseumsQuartier Wien: Kunsthalle Wien, Leopold Museum, MUMOK (Museum of Modern Art), and many more
Art Museums: Albertina (Vienna), Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (KHM), Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Liechtenstein Museum, Museum of Applied Arts (Vienna) (MAK), Essl Collection, Lentos Linz, Vienna Secession, Alte Galerie (Graz)
Scientific Museums: Natural History Museum Vienna, Vienna Technical Museum, Austrian National Library with State Hall, Globe Museum, Esperanto Museum and Papyrus Museum
Other important museums: Landeszeughaus (Graz), part of the Landesmuseum Joanneum, Ars Electronica Center Linz, Grazer Kunsthaus, Künstlerhaus Bregenz, Tiroler Landesmuseum (Ferdinandeum), Haus der Musik, Schatzkammer (Vienna), Museum of Military History, Rupertinum Salzburg

Source From Wikipedia