Walking along the elegant Andrássy Avenue, you’ll see beautiful maple trees and elegant villas on both sides. This atmospheric street is also the setting of the Hungarian State Opera. This stunning opera house was built in the late 19th century as an architectural and acoustic tour de force. Many Hungarians still love spending an afternoon or evening in style, enjoying a classical music concert or a ballet performance.
The opera house was built between 1875 and 1884 at a time when the country was going through some major changes. Buda and Pest had just merged into a single city and Hungary was becoming increasingly independent from Austria. Built to measure up to the opera houses in Vienna, Dresden and Paris, the Royal Opera of Hungary, as it was originally called, soon developed into one of Europe’s leading cultural platforms.
“Story has it that Emperor Franz Josef didn’t much appreciate the opera house he financed.”