Sofiensaal

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Sofiensaal is a concert hall and recording venue in Vienna, Austria, on Marxergasse in the Landstraße district. The building was completed in 1826 and began as a steam bath called Sofienbad. Between 1845 and 1849, architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll converted it into a dance hall and renamed it the Sofiensaal. It was named after Princess Sophie of Bavaria, mother of Emperor Franz Josef I.

Johann Strauss I performed there regularly and conducted the opening ball in 1848. Many of the Strauss family’s waltzes were first played there. The hall’s big vaulted ceiling and a pool beneath the floor gave it excellent acoustics. Because of this, Decca Records used it as their main European recording venue from 1955 to the mid-1980s. John Culshaw, a senior producer, helped create the famous Decca sound. Notable recordings at the Sofiensaal include the first full studio recording of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, conducted by Georg Solti.

In the years before the fire, the building was used mostly for parties and discos. The last recording there before the fire, in July 2001, was Arcadi Volodos playing works by Franz Schubert. In May 2001, the owners announced plans to use the building as a conference centre. On 16 August 2001 a fire broke out and burned for more than eight hours, destroying the main ballroom. The façade and some walls survived, as did some decorative stucco and the nearby Blauer Salon. There were no deaths or injuries.

In January 2006 it was announced that Sofiensaal would be redeveloped into apartments, with plans to build around the existing façade. The new owner, ifa AG, rebuilt the historic ballroom and kept the façade. They used the surrounding area to create apartments, a hotel, a catering company, a fitness studio, and other rooms. Sofiensaal reopened in December 2013. The reopening ceremony featured celebrity guests and 3D projections.