The Large Festival Hall in Salzburg (from 1960 to 1962 New Festival Hall, since 1963 Large Festival Hall) is one of the venues of the Salzburg Festival and is located in the old town, it is partly built into the Mönchsberg.
The Large Festival Hall belonged together with the House for Mozart (the former Small Festival Hall), the Felsenreitschule and the town hall to the former prince-archbishop‘s court stables (Hofmarstall). They were built under Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau in 1606 and 1607, and the Marstallschwemme on today’s Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz also belonged to the complex. In 1662 this building was expanded and the winter riding school was set up, on the site of which the House for Mozart is located today. A further expansion took place under Archbishop Johann Ernst von Thun. The summer riding school, today’s Felsenreitschule, and the facade of the northern narrow side facing Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz and the Marstallschwemme were designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach in 1693/94.
After the end of the prince archbishopric in 1803, the house was a cavalry barracks, the Hofstallkaserne. The riding school was founded in 1841 as k.k. Cavalry riding hall adapted, expanded and covered. In 1859 the main house was increased. Cavalry detachments were housed until the second third of the 19th century, and from then on artillery as well. After the First World War, the First Army was also stationed here. From the founding in 1924, the House of Nature also found its place here, which moved to the abandoned Ursuline Convent in 1959.
According to the plans of the Austrian architect Clemens Holzmeister, the idea of a second opera and concert hall was put into practice. This was built next to the existing Festspielhaus (today’s Haus für Mozart). Between 1956 and 1960, 55,000 cubic meters of the Mönchsberg were first removed for the new building in order to have enough space, especially for the stage, and then the festival hall was built.
