500 Years of the Provincial Capital City of Linz – Anniversary 1990

On 10 March 1999 it was exactly 500 years to the day since Emperor Friedrich III first officially confirmed Linz as capital city of the province in a document. Linz celebrated this half a millennium with more than 170 events.

A Celebration for Everyone

The anniversary year 1990 opened with sound and fireworks on New Year's Eve. The range of events was broad and did justice to the cultural dynamics of recent years with numerous innovations and single projects by contemporary Upper Austrian artists. The LinzFest, which took place then for the first time, offered the enjoyment of culture for everyone on eight stages on the banks of the Danube and a floating stage on the Danube. The festival LinzKunst presented contemporary art by more than 150 Upper Austrian artists, not only in museums, but also through the entire city center. The center of LinzKunst was the Main Square and the art ship anchored there.

Custom-Made Productions

The production of the Richard Strauß opera "Salome" in the Brucknerhaus Linz attracted international attention. Visualization artist Hans Hoffer turned the gallery of the audience space into a spectacularly arranged stage. A custom-made special composition was heard for the first time in the Danube Park at the Visualized Linz Cloud of Sound, the Kepler Cloud of Sound by Walter Haupt. Finally, in December the Peace and Human Rights Conference was held in Linz. The anniversary year also became a year of encounters with thousands of guests from at home and abroad.

Linz as Exhibition Center

Various exhibitions focused on the theme of Linz in different ways. The City Museum Nordico showed "Linz in Picture and Model". The public showed great interest in the two-part exhibition of the province. "Man and Cosmos" in the Castle Museum showed a complete representation of the discovery history of the modern scientific world view. In the IMAX space cinema in the castle courtyard the Discovery film "The Dream" provided the perfect illusion of being able to observe planet earth from a height of 450 km. "Origin and Modernism" in the New Gallery of the City of Linz focused on a fascinating confrontation between archaeological objects and examples of modern art.

Building Projects During the Anniversary Year

Not only the children's cultural center Kuddelmuddel was completed in 1990, but also the extension of the Posthof was celebrated in the fall of the same year. Ten metal sculptures of the "Kepler Ellipse" by teachers, alumni and students from the Masterclass Metal were also installed there. During the anniversary year, the Stadtwerkstatt moved into its new residence in Alt-Urfahr, and the Phönix Theater found a new home in the remodeled facilities of the former Phönix cinema. A total of ten anniversary fountains were dedicated in 1990 in various city districts of Linz. In 1990 the ground was broken for the Music Pavilion in the Danube Park, where performances have been held regularly during the summer months since 1991.