Stadttheater Steyr

The Stadttheater Steyr stands in the Volksstraße in Steyr, a town in Upper Austria. It began life in 1898 as an exhibition hall for industry and trade. By 1924 the building had become a cinema and concert hall with nine hundred seats. In 1951 an architect named Piffl carried out further alterations. The old theatre in the Cölestinerinnen Church had grown too small and outdated. Between 1957 and 1958 its stage wing was removed and a modern stage house added to the hall. Karl von Tobisch-Labotýn designed the new stage house, which opened on 27 September 1958 with Puccini’s La Bohème. Today the theatre doubles as a cinema. Its stage house sits beside the former exhibition hall, now the auditorium. The building’s industrial origins remain visible in the brick walls and high windows. Visitors can sit in the stalls or climb to the circle for performances. The foyer still shows traces of its earlier role as a trade-fair gallery.