Ranking among the most beautiful opera houses in Europe, you may find its opulence a distraction from the performance.

Commissioned by the Emperor Franz Joseph, the Opera's construction began in 1875 under the supervision of architect Miklós Ybl. Ybl apparently checked every cartload of stone. Italian-Renaissance in style, its interior is voluptuously marbled, gilded and decorated with frescoes by some of the finest painters of the time. It eventually opened in 1884 and attracted the biggest names in opera. Gustav Mahler was music director for a time, and after World War II Otto Klemperer took up the directorship. On the stone cornice of the terrace are statues of composers including Mozart, Verdi, Wagner and Beethoven; but niches by the main entrance are reserved for the great 19th-century Hungarian composers Erkel and Liszt. Above the vast auditorium, seating 1,289 people, hangs a three-tonne bronze chandelier decorated with a fine fresco by Károly Lotz showing Greek gods, with Apollo the god of music in the centre.