Description of the attraction
The Austrian Theater Museum at Lobkowitz Palace was created on the basis of the theater collection of the Austrian National Library in 1991.
The heyday of popularity of theatrical art in Vienna came in the late 19th - early 20th century. The townspeople enjoy spending time at music exhibitions and theatrical premieres. Therefore, in 1921 it was decided to create a collection dedicated to theater in the Austrian National Library. All the preparatory work was done by Joseph Gregor, who was a renowned theater-goer and librarian.
A year later, in 1922, a theatrical comedy exhibition was opened for the first time, which aroused great interest among the public. Having received a lot of positive reviews, it was decided to buy out his private collection from the director Hugo Simig, which formed the basis of the museum exposition. In 1938, Stefan Zweig bequeathed his collection of autographs of prominent poets and playwrights to the museum.
After the official approval by the Austrian Ministry of Education, the collection was named “Theater-collection”. Since then, cultural circles have repeatedly raised talks about the creation of a separate museum, which would be entirely dedicated to the theater. Finally, in 1975, the Austrian Theater Museum was opened.
The museum is housed in the Lobkowicz Palace, which was previously the most important palace in the city. The palace was built for Philip Sigmund von Dietrichstein after the second siege by the Turks in 1683.
Currently, the museum's exposition contains more than 100 thousand engravings and drawings, about 600 various models of theatrical costumes, more than half a million valuable photographs of directors, actors and composers. One of the most striking and valuable exhibits in the museum is Teschner's puppet theater, which is called the Golden Cabinet. In addition, true connoisseurs of theater will be interested in the museum library, which has a collection of about 80 thousand books.
