02.07.–30.11.2026
First floor
special tour
150 Years of the Bayreuth Festival. Joining the celebration.
The first Bayreuth Festival took place from 13 to 30 August 1876 in the Festival Theatre specially built for that purpose. Among the guests in attendance were Emperor Wilhelm I, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, and the composers Anton Bruckner, Camille Saint-Saëns, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Edvard Grieg, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Franz Liszt.
The programme featured the complete world premiere of the monumental four-opera cycle “Der Ring des Nibelungen”, on which Wagner had worked for a total of 26 years. Incidentally, the idea of choosing Bayreuth as the location for his music theatre first came to him in these very rooms of the country manor at Tribschen, where he lived from 1866 to 1872.
On this tour through the permanent exhibition on the ground floor, you can learn more about the first festival and the “Ring” through selected documents, personal belongings, and memorabilia. Simply follow these small pennants.
If you would like to learn more about the darker chapters in the festival’s history, be sure to visit our special exhibition.
Related events
11.09.26 at 6:30 PM: Book presentation “Aufgehobene Revolution”
About the tour
Curator: Franziska Gallusser (Richard Wagner Museum)
Design: Peter Moser
Figure 1: Copy of the “Siegfried” score
Figure 2: Hans Thoma: “The Daughters of the Rhine”, 1896
Figure 3: Bust of Cosima Wagner
Figure 4: Wilhelm Beckmann: “Richard Wagner at his home in Bayreuth”