SEVEN SENSATIONAL SALZBURG SIGHTS

Paris has her lovers, London her Queen; and New York is one Big bad Apple.  For Salzburg, the charming Alpine Austrian city Jim and I got the chance to see three weeks ago, I’d have to say it’s Mozart, and thus music.

Yes, Salzburg has been alive with music long before her most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was born in 1756; certainly long before Julie Andrews proclaimed the hills to be alive with music in the opening scene of the award winning 1965 film, The Sound of Music.  

Salzburg's mighty acropolis, the Hohensalzburg, has always reigned over her city below.

Before the music there was a monastery, as far back as the 5th century, long before St. Rupert received the ruins of the Roman city called Juvavum as a present from the Duke of Bavaria in 700 AD.  Before the monastery there was Monchsberg, the rocky hill on which the monastery and today’s massive fortress, Hohensalzburg, sits.  It’s where St. Rupert founded St. Peter’s Abbey and what is known today as “Salt Castle”, the city of Salzburg. 

The past and the present sit on opposite banks of the Salzach River in this rich cultural and spiritual center, home to 145,000 people and the acclaimed Salzburger Festspiele (Salzburg Festival).   My Seven Sensational Salzburg sights hardly do justice to this grand dame, but I can only work with what I was given - 6 hours, with a break for lunch.   See what you think. 
I think this is more history than my meager mind can manage.  I'm exhausted and late posting!  It's worth it though, because I know you'll be delighted! I pray the typos and bad grammer have been reduced to a minimum.

1. Festung Hohensalzburg

This “High Salzberg Fortress”, which sits 400 feet above the river Salzach, is Salzburg’s acropolis and the largest preserved medieval fortress in Central Europe.  Originally founded by
Salzburg’s Archbishop Gebhard in 1077, the castle has never been conquered.  All the more reason for taking the high ground. The only time it actually came under siege was during the
German-Peasants’ War in 1525, when a group of rebellious farmers, miners and townsfolk tried to oust Prince-Archbishop Matthaus Lang.  Beginning in the late 19th century,  Hohensalzburg was refurbished as a tourist attraction showcasing lavish state rooms, a torture chamber and a 200-pipe organ appropriately called the “Bull.”   In 1892 the Feustungsbahn (cable car) opened to provide easy access to the castle from the town below.   

2.  Schloss Mirabell

Famous for her formal gardens built by baroque master builder Lukas von Hildebrandt, including this fountain flanked by four large statues representing the elements water, fire, air and earth, Salzburg’s so called Taj Mahal, the Mirabell Palace (‘beautiful view’), was so named by Prince Archbishop Markus Sittikus von Hohenems after he succeeded original owner  Prince Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau. Raitenau built the palace he called Schloss Altenau in 1606 for his mistress.  Wow, that was one sweet sugar daddy for the little mistress!  

3.  Alstadt

Nowhere in Salzburg was her extraordinary rich urban fabric, a unique blend of Italian and German cultures,  more evident than in the architecture of ‘Old Town’ on the left bank of the Salzach River. The contrasts between the lands of the Prince-Archbishops and those of the burghers were startling.  The former, characterized by monumental buildings – the Cathedral, the Residence, the Franciscan Abbey, the Abbey of St. Peter – abound with open spaces, the Domplatz (Cathedral Square) in particular.  By contrast, the burghers’ houses, complete with the old style signs of professionals, sat on narrow, cobblestoned streets in this UNESCO World Heritage site with the only open spaces provided by the three historic markets.  Both featured all style of buildings from the Middle Ages, Romanesque, Baroque and Renaissance periods as well as the elegant classical burghers’ houses dating from the monarchy.  The place oozed charm, history and culture.  I stuck out like a sore thumb (and a tourist).

4.  Dom du Salzburg 

Salzburg's version of the Louvre perhaps? No, just a cover for the fountain in Cathedral Square.

The Salzburg Cathedral is the ecclesiastical center of the city, its magnificent façade and mighty dome the most impressive Baroque edifice north of the Alps.  The Cathedral that stands today bears witness to the power and independence of Salzburg’s archbishops since the first of three cathedrals was consecrated on this site in 774 to St. Virgil and St. Rupert.  When a fire destroyed the first Cathedral 400 years later, Archbishop Conrad III of Wittelsbach rebuilt a larger and more impressive cathedral. When a second fire in 1598 destroyed large portions of the Cathedral, then Archbishop Wolf Dietrich seized on the opportunity to tear down the entire Cathedral, desecrating the church cemetery to make way for his plans for a new cathedral; Salzburg citizens were outraged.  Dietrich did not live to see the consecration of the new cathedral in 1628, although his demise was not at the hands of the outraged citizens. The Napoleonic Wars brought an end to centuries of sovereign rule by the Salzburg prince bishops and the dethroning of Hieronymus von Colloredo.  The first Habsburg, Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany brought Salzburg under his rule in 1803. Bombing during World War II destroyed the chancel.  Necessary renovations began after the war and culminated in the third consecration of the cathedral in 1959.  I guess the third time was a charm.

5.   Mozarts Geburtshaus

The lines were too long to make seeing anything but the façade for the birthplace (January 27, 1756) of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at Getreidegasse 9 possible.  The building, known as the “Hagenauer House” at Getreidegasse 9 for twenty-six years, from 1747 to 1773, was named after the merchant and toy dealer, Johann Lorenz Hagenauer, who owned the building and was a family friend of the Mozarts.  On June 15, 1880, the International Mozarteum Foundation opened the doors to the public to Mozart’s restored childhood home, offering a view of historic documents, memorabilia and most of the portraits painted during Mozart’s lifetime, including the unfinished oil painting “Mozart at the Piano “ painted by Mozart’s brother-in-law, Joseph Lange, in 1789.  Among the famous exhibits are Mozart’s child violin, his concert violin, his clavichord, the harpsichord, as well as portraits and letters from the Mozart family.  We did get in to see Mozart’s digs in Vienna.  You’ll see them too when the time comes!

6.  Alte Residenz

As early as the Middle Ages, the historical seat of the Archbishop of Salzburg held a prominent position within the city’s Old Town.  Three of the historically most important Salzburg archbishops, Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, Markus Sittikus and Paris Lodron were responsible for the design of the 180-room stately mansion adjacent to the Cathedral.  During the 19th century, when Salzburg was secularized, the Residenz Palace was temporarily used as a private palace by some members of the Austrian royal family as well as the line of Habsburg-Toskana royals.  Today the law department of the Paris Lodron University calls the ‘Toskanatrakt’ wing in the south-east corner of the palace its home. Most of the palace is a museum, although some of the more elaborate state rooms can be rented for weddings and private events.  The Salzburg Museum, Europe’s Museum of the Year in 2009, is located in the New Residential Palace, a separate building erected for Archbishop Raitenau opposite the Old Residenz Palace.  I guess new digs were in order or perhaps a change of scenery.  
 
7.  Wasserschlob Anif

This is as close as I could get to the real von Trapp story (this link is a spoiler if you want to keep the movie version/fantasy going). And while I’ve always enjoyed the fiction woven from fact in the film, The Sound of Music, the rose-tinted glasses came off during my trip to Salzburg where the story and many outdoor movie locations originated.  This Water Castle in Anif, approximately 5 miles south of Salzburg, did show up briefly in the opening panoramic scenes of the movie but otherwise the private property of Johannes Moy remains very private.  The von Trapp house in the movie is actually two different palatial homes in Salzburg, one used for the view of the front and one used for the scenes outside on the back stone area.  Both homes are private residences trying to find anonymity in the global village of the 21st century.   The famous gazebo is now part of the gardens at Hellbrunn Palace on the southern outskirts of Salzburg.  It seems privacy became too much to ask of the tourists clamoring to see this icon at its original location at Leopoldskron.   I could go on with my fact versus fiction little reality show, but that would be like spilling the beans when it comes to Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. Oops, you didn't know!?  As a parent and grandparent, much less a blogger, I ask you – why would anybody want to destroy dreams, childhood or otherwise?