Stadthalle Neuwied

The hall Neuwied calls its Stadthalle grew out of a classical villa: the Heimathaus on Luisenstraße was built in 1825 as a casino for the town's society, its two storeys fronted by a portico on four Doric columns, and in 1850 a hall was added at the rear. Rebuilt in 1998 as a Festhalle with a restaurant attached, it became the town's principal indoor venue — the Raiffeisensaal for large audiences, two smaller conference rooms and a glazed foyer below — and it carries the concerts, congresses and balls of a Rhineland town of some sixty-five thousand people. The city's annual New Year concert is given here, which is how a Bulgarian orchestra came to spend the first day of 2011 on its stage. Its future is under discussion: a feasibility study published by the city in 2025 recommended a new, purpose-built events hall, with a temporary structure near the station in the interim — so the old casino's long service as Neuwied's concert room may be approaching its close.