8. Salzburg summer festivals

Max Reinhard, Hugo von Hofmannstal and Richard Strauß founded the Salzburg Summer Festivals in 1020 with the intention of bringing the best musicians from all over the world. They decided to play Hugo von Hofmannsthal's “Jedermann”, "Everyman", on the cathedral square in the open air. Very soon the Salzburg Summer Festival became so famous that the Small Festival Hall became too small for all the visitors.

That is when Clemens Holzmeister, an Austrian architect, changed part of the royal stable into the today’s Large Festival Hall. In 1960 Herbert von Karajan, the Austrian conductor who was born and died here in Salzburg, opened the building. He was famous as the conductor to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.