Berlin's Staatsoper Unter den Linden will receive 200 million euros ($293 million) from the German parliament, according to Bloomberg News.

“There has never been a cultural investment program as big as this one in Germany,'' Culture Minister Bernd Neumann said in the statement.

The Culture Ministry said the gift is part of part of a 400 million-euro cultural investment package in the 2007 supplementary budget; other receiving institutions include Weimar's city palace and its fire-damaged library and a Bonn concert hall in the works.

The Staatsoper’s refurbishment is set to begin in 2010 and to take over three years, during which the Schiller Theater in the western Berlin district of Charlottenburg will server as the company’s termporary home.

“The Staatsoper needs a complete renovation,'' said company spokesman Johannes Ehmann. “Lots of things don't work at all,' including some of the stage machinery.”

By Kevin Shihoten