Mayday ( 1st May ) was a good day to visit Vienna as there were loads of things going on marches, free concerts, food stalls, fireworks in the evening at the Prater .. Anyway my day started off well as i left my accommodation ( wombats hostel on Mariahilfer strasse - which was great ) A brass marching band was passing so i decided to tag along with them and they marched to Vienna city hall past numerous vienna landmarks so i got a free tour-if you like. These are a few of the images along the route.

Hofburg theatre The theatre opened on 14 March 1741, the creation of the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa of Austria who wanted a theatre next to her palace. Her son, Emperor Joseph II, called it the "German National Theatre" in 1776. Three Mozart operas premiered there: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782), Le nozze di Figaro (1786) and Così fan tutte (1790). Beginning in 1794, the theatre was called the "K.K. Hoftheater nächst der Burg". Beethoven's 1st Symphony premiered there on 2 April 1800. The last performance, in October 1888, was of Goethe’s Iphigenie auf Tauris

The theatre's first building adjoined the Hofburg at Michaelerplatz, opposite St. Michael's Church. The theatre was moved to a new building at the Ringstraße on 14 October 1888 designed by Gottfried Semper and Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer.

In 1943, under Nazi rule, a notoriously extreme production of The Merchant of Venice was staged at the Burgtheater - with Werner Krauss as Shylock, one of several theatre and film roles by this actor pandering to anti semitic stereotypes.

On 12 March 1945 the Burgtheater was largely destroyed in a bombing raid, and one month later, on 12 April 1945, it was further damaged by a fire of unknown origin. After the war, the theatre was restored between 1953 and 1955. The classic Burgtheater style and the Burgtheater-German language were trend-setting for German language theatres.