This is how the St. Pöltner Zeitung rigorously judged in April 1914 after the opening of the city’s first permanent cinema at the Pittner Hotel.
Until then, the city government had spoken out against the granting of a film license for fear of competition for the newly renovated city theater. The result was the opening of the “Elitekino” in January 1913 just beyond the Traisenbrücke, in Wagram, then still independent.
And in November of the same year, Louis Geni, owner of a traveling cinema known throughout the country, founded his first brick cinema on Mühlweg, right next to the city limits.
The city could no longer ignore the tide of time and concluded a contract with the imperial councilor Karl Wohlmuth, who undertook to build a cinema in Hessstraße according to the wishes of the city. It is not without a certain irony that the rooms of the Stadttheater were temporarily made available to him.
However, Wohlmuth’s cinema was never made, the contract with him was terminated and Franz Pittner was commissioned to direct the city cinema.
The park’s cinema was the largest in the country at the time
Both the theater and the cinema were very popular. In 1923 the city had therefore transformed a former riding stable on the corner of Klostergasse and Rennbahnstraße into a “Parkkino”. With 1,000 seats, it was the largest cinema in Lower Austria.
The park cinema on the corner of Klostergasse and Rennbahnstraße had 1,000 seats. Photo: Topothek St. Pölten
Photo:
Topoteca St. Pölten
In 1929 the Carmelite Order followed with its “Popular Educational Cinema” next to the Church of San Giuseppe, continued from 1935 as “Apollo Lichtspiele” by the Maderna family. Later cinemas were added in the Volksheim Spratzern, in Stattersdorf and Wagram. The peak has been reached, all parts of the city have been stocked with cinemas.
Cinematic deaths in the 70s and 80s
But St. Pölten was not spared the great cinematic deaths of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1967 Louis de Funès was still chasing Fantomas before the Apollo Lichtspiele closed its doors.Today there is a parking lot where the park cinema used to be and the city cinema has finally had to give way to a medical center.
And in recent years, the Mühlwegkino was more popularly known as “the work of blood”, as fistfights were not only dominant on the screen, but often around the cinema as well.
In the end, only the “Forumkino” remained. First opened in 1968 in the Volkshaus on Kranzbichlerstraße, for 30 years it was the last refuge for film buffs in St. Pölten.
A new era of cinema began in the 1990s
The new era of cinema arrived in the city in 1997 with the opening of the Hollywood Megaplex: with eleven theaters, the latest technology and a large hall, it is the perfect place for blockbusters of all genres.
A few years later, some enthusiasts managed to establish the meeting point for true filmmakers: the Cinema Paradiso on Rathausplatz! Cultural meeting place and permanent protagonist of the city, it celebrates its 20th anniversary in November.
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