History of the building
1949 Construction begins after the museum building that previously stood on the site was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War.
1950 The Stadtkino opens as Salzburg’s first Cinemascope cinema, with 600 seats. The building is used not only as a cinema but also for a wide range of other events, from boxing matches to concerts.
1954 Café 21 opens inside the Stadtkino. Its first guests include American GIs. In the following years, the café becomes a meeting place for artists and cultural figures, among them actress Judith Holzmeister, singer Karel Gott, conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos, philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and comedian Helmut Qualtinger.
1984 The “death of cinema” also leads to the initial closure of the Stadtkino.
1985 The building is used as an annexe of the Museum Carolino Augusteum. For an exhibition of modern art from the 1950s and 1960s drawn from the Lenz Schönberg Collection, the cinema is stripped back to its brick walls. This also results in the loss of much of the building’s infrastructure.
1986 SZENE discovers the Stadtkino while looking for temporary premises during the the refurbishment of its long-term venue, the Petersbrunnhof. Following a SOMMERSZENE festival that receives widespread acclaim from both press and audiences, the building is used in the following autumn for the architectural exhibition Grundsteine.
1987 The building is assigned to SZENE, which temporarily adapts the auditorium and the bar. As the building has no functioning heating system, it can initially only be used as a summer venue.
1993 The installation of a heating system makes year-round use of the building possible.
2002 The City and Province of Salzburg provide around €1.8 million to upgrade the building’s infrastructure. Following a year-long refurbishment, the building reopens on 4 July under the name “republic”.
2018 SZENE Salzburg reloaded – the building at Anton-Neumayr-Platz 2 returns to its original name: the venue, restaurant and studio are brought together under the common name SZENE Salzburg.