History of the building
1949 Construction begins after the museum building that had previously occupied the site was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War.
1950 Opening of the Stadtkino, Salzburg’s first Cinemascope movie theatre with 600 seats. The venue is used not only as a cinema but also for other events ranging from boxing matches to concerts.
1954 Café 21 opens inside the Stadtkino. Its first guests are American GIs. It later becomes a meeting point for artists, including actress Judith Holzmeister, singing star Karel Gott, opera legend Dimitri Mitropoulos, philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, comedian Helmut Qualtinger and many more.
1984 The “death of cinema” also leads to the initial closure of the Stadtkino.
1985 The building is used as by the Museum Carolino Augusteum as an annexe. The cinema is stripped back to its brick walls for an exhibition of Modern Art of the 50s and 60s from the Lenz Schönberg Collection. Unfortunately this also destroys the building’s infrastructure.
1986 SZENE discovers the Stadtkino in a search for temporary quarters while the SZENE’s long-term venue, the Petersbrunnhof, is refurbished. After a Sommerszene festival highly acclaimed by press and public alike, the building is used the following autumn for the architectural exhibition Grundsteine.
1987 The building is promised to SZENE, which provisionally adapts the auditorium and the bar. In the absence of any functioning heating it is used exclusively as a summer venue.
1993 With the installation of a heating system the building can now be used all year round.
2002 The city and state of Salzburg provide around 1.8 M Euro to upgrade the building’s infrastructure. After a one year refit, the building is re-opened on 4thJuly with the name republic.
2018 SZENE Salzburg reloaded – the building on Anton-Neumayr-Platz 2 returns to its old name: the venue, restaurant and studio now have one collective title.