Wien: Klimt at "Burgtheater"

The Burgtheater is the most prestigious stage in the German-speaking world. The original theatre built in Maria Theresa’s reign was replaced in 1888 by today’s Italian Renaissance-style building by Karl von Hasenauer and Gottfried Semper. It closed for refurbishment in 1897 after the discovery that the auditorium had several seats with no view of the stage. Forty-eight years later a bomb devastated the building, leaving only the side wings containing the Grand Staircases intact. Subsequent restoration was so seamless that today its extent is hard to assess.