On the night of 25^th February 1776, a fire destroyed the Teatro Regio Ducale in mysterious circumstances. The empress Maria Theresa of Austria appointed the architect, Giuseppe Piermarini, to build a new theatre, this time on the degraded area of the Church of Santa Maria della Scala.

And so, in 1778, began the story of the Teatro Grande alla Scala, destined to become of the most important focal points of both Italian and European culture. The famous painting by Angelo Inganni, La facciata del Teatro alla Scala (The facade of the Teatro alla Scala), of 1852, shows us how La Scala looked in its golden age of the nineteenth century.