Miklós Ybl designed the opera house, which the city of Budapest and Emperor Franz Joseph I funded. Construction began in 1875, and it opened on September 27, 1884. The style is Neo-Renaissance with Baroque elements. The symmetrical facade has a musical theme, and statues of Ferenc Erkel and Franz Liszt by Alajos Stróbl stand in niches beside the main entrance.
The foyer has marble columns and a vaulted ceiling with murals of the nine Muses by Bertalan Székely and Mór Than. A bronze chandelier weighing 6,724 pounds (3,050 kg) lights a fresco by Károly Lotz of the Greek gods on Olympus. The royal box sits at the center of the three-story circle.
The horseshoe auditorium holds 1,261 people in the text, while the infobox lists 1,000. A renovation ran from 1980 to 1984, and the house reopened on September 27, 1984, exactly 100 years after the original opening. Guided tours run in six languages almost every day.
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