Celestine Church, Steyr

The building, which is a protected historical monument,[1] after conversion to a theatre in the 1790s, is now used as a music school and performance space.

In 1646 a community of nuns of the Order of the Most Holy Annunciation, otherwise known as Celestine Nuns, after being driven by war from their original home in Pontarlier, Burgundy, came first to Vienna and then to Steyr, where the Empress Eleonora gave them a house.

Other benefactors made possible the conversion of the site to conventual buildings in 1662 and the construction of the church between 1676 and 1681.

In 1784 the nunnery was dissolved under the Josephine reforms, and the municipal authority of Steyr acquired both the conventual buildings and the church.

In 1789, with the stage fittings from the suppressed Garsten Abbey, efforts began to construct a theatre: the project was finally achieved in 1796 with financial support from Prince Lamberg.