Named after the State Opera and Karlsplatz, the square of Emperor Karl VI.
The opera house on the Ring, by Eduard van der Nüll and August Sicard von Sicardsburg, opened as the imperial Court Opera (Hofoper) on 25 May 1869 with Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’. The name Staatsoper (State Opera) was used from the 1920s but became official only in 1938. Karlsplatz was named in 1899 after Emperor Karl VI.