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The earliest documentary evidence we have of Mozart family residence in Salbzurg, also known as the 'Dancing-master's House' dates from the year 1617. The name is explained by the fact that from 1711 onwards, dancing-classes for teh aristocracy were held in these spacious rooms, where instruction was also given in etiquette and correct behaviour. Later the prince-archbishop even allowed to organize a number of 'mascera' ie. masked balls.
The owner of the house, Franz Karl Gottlieb Speckner, was on friendly terms with Mozart's parents and was also a witness at their wedding. By 1765 the house at Getreidegasse 9, where the famous composer was born, was already too small for the Mozart family. Leopold Mozart wanted to Wolfgang, above all, to have sufficient room to work.
But it was only in 1773, when father and son returned from their third visit to Vienna, that they were able, together with Mozart's mother and sister, Nannerl, to move to the house in what was then know as Hannibalplatz, the present day Makartplatz 8.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived there from 1773 to 1780, composing numberous works including world-famous symphonies, divertimenti, serenades, piano and violin concertos, a concerto for bassoon, arias, masses and sacred-music. In 1944, during World War TT, a flying-bomb hit this historic building, destroying two-thirds of it. In 1955, the International Mozarteum Foudation was able to purchase the surviving part of the orginial Dancing-master's House, later on purchased the offices of the Erste Allgemein Versicherungsgesellschaft. This office building was demolished in 1994 and the rebuilding of the Mozart's residence commenced on 4th May.
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