Salzburg in Austria ~ Travel

View of Salzburg City Centre

Salzburg (Austro-Bavarian: Såizburg; literally: "Salt Castle") is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital city of the federal state of Salzburg.

Salzburg's "Old Town" (Altstadt) has internationally renowned baroque architecture and one of the best-preserved city centres north of the Alps. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The city is noted for its Alpine setting.

Salzburg was the birthplace of 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the mid-20th century, the city was the setting for parts of the American musical and film The Sound of Music, which features famous landmarks in Austria. The musical was a partnership between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.

The capital city of the State of Salzburg (Land Salzburg), the city has three universities. It has a large population of students who add liveliness and energy to the area, and the universities provide culture to the community.

Main sights

Salzburg is a tourist favourite, with the number of tourists outnumbering locals by a large margin in peak times. In addition to Mozart's birthplace noted above, other notable places include:

Old Town

² The entire Old Town of Salzburg was nominated as a World Heritage Site in 1996.

² The baroque architecture including the many churches are world famous.

² The Salzburg Cathedral (Salzburger Dom)

² The Hohensalzburg Castle (Festung Hohensalzburg) on a hill dominating the old town is one of the largest castles in Europe, with views over Salzburg.

² The Franziskanerchurch

² The St Peter's Abbey with the Petersfriedhof

² The Nonnberg Abbey a Benedictine monastery

² The Residenz Palace (the magnificent former Prince-Archbishop's residence), containing the Residenzgalerie

² Mozart's Birthplace

² Mozart's Residence

² The University Church

² The Siegmundstor (or Neutor)

² The Getreidegasse

Gardens in Mirabell Palace

Outside the Inner Old Town

² Palace of Mirabell with its wide gardens full of flowers.

² St. Sebastian's cemetery (Sebastiansfriedhof)

² The palace of Leopoldskron is a rococo palace and a national historic monument in Leopoldskron-Moos, a southern district of the city of Salzburg.

² Hellbrunn with its parks and castles

² Tour companies operate tours of locations used in the film The Sound of Music.

The famous fountain in Mirabell Gardens (seen in the Do-Re-Mi song from Sound of Music

Within the greater Salzburg area

² Anif Castle

² The Basilika Maria Plain on the Calvary Hill, a late Baroque church, on the northern edge of Salzburg.

² Salzburger Freilichtmuseum Großgmain, an open-air museum containing old farmhouses/farm buildings from all over the state assembled in historic setting.

² The Schloss Klessheim Palace (today a Casino) was formerly used by Adolf Hitler.

² The Berghof, Hitler's mountain retreat of which only the Eagle's Nest remains, was in nearby Berchtesgaden.

² The Salzkammergut is an area of lakes in the Salzburg state, east of the city and further on into the provinces of Upper Austria and Styria.

² The Untersberg mountain is next to the city, straddling the German-Austrian border, and on a clear day provides panoramic views of the city and the Alps.

² Skiing is an attraction during winter. Salzburg itself has no skiing facilities, but it acts as a gateway to skiing areas to the south. During the winter months its airport receives charter flights from around Europe.

View of shoppers on Getreidegasse, which is one of the oldest streets in Salzburg

Zoo Salzburg

² The Salzburg Zoo is in the south of the city, in the municipality of Anif.

Mozart's birthplace at Getreidegasse 9

Notable citizens

² The composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born and raised in Salzburg and worked for the archbishops from 1769 to 1781. His house of birth and residence are tourist attractions. His family is buried in a small church graveyard in the old town, and there are many monuments to "Wolferl" in the city.

² The composer Johann Michael Haydn, brother of the composer Joseph Haydn. His works were admired by Mozart and Schubert. He was also the teacher of Carl Maria von Weber and Anton Diabelli and is known for his sacred music.

² Christian Doppler, an expert on acoustic theory, was born in Salzburg. He is most known for his discovery of the Doppler effect.

Salzburg Airport

² Josef Mohr was born in Salzburg. Together with Franz Gruber, he composed and wrote the text for "Silent Night". As a priest in neighbouring Oberndorf he performed the song for the first time in 1818.

² King Otto of Greece was born Prince Otto Friedrich Ludwig of Bavaria at the Palace of Mirabell, a few days before the city reverted from Bavarian to Austrian rule.

² Noted writer Stefan Zweig lived in Salzburg for about 15 years, until 1934.

² Maria Von Trapp (later Maria Trapp) and her family lived in Salzburg until they fled to the United States following the Nazi takeover.

² Salzburg is the birthplace of Hans Makart, a 19th-century Austrian painter-decorator and national celebrity. Makartplatz (Makart Square) is named in his honour.

Map of the Salzburg trolleybus system

² Writer Thomas Bernhard was raised in Salzburg and spent part of his life there.

² Herbert von Karajan was a notable musician and conductor. He was born in Salzburg and died in 1989 in neighbouring Anif.

² Anthropologist Udo Ludwig was born here.

² Roland Ratzenberger, Formula One driver, was born in Salzburg. He died in practice for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

² Joseph Leutgeb, French horn virtuoso

² Klaus Ager, the distinguished contemporary composer and Mozarteum professor, was born in Salzburg on 10 May 1946.

² Alex Jesaulenko, Australian rules footballer and AFL Hall of Fame player with "Legend" status was born in Salzburg on 2 August 1945.

² Georg Trakl is one of the most important voices in German literature and he was also born in Salzburg.

² Theodor Herzl worked in the courts in Salzburg during the year after he earned his law degree in 1884.

Salzburg basin

Events

The Salzburg Festival is a famous music festival that attracts visitors during the months of July and August each year. A smaller Salzburg Easter Festival is held around Easter each year.

The Europrix multimedia award takes place in Salzburg.

Salzburg seen on takeoff from Salzburg Airport

Transportation

The city is serviced by comprehensive rail connections, with frequent east-west trains servicing Vienna, Munich, Innsbruck, and Zürich, including daily high-speed ICE services. The city acts as a hub for south-bound trains through the Alps into Italy.

Salzburg Airport has scheduled flights to European cities such as Frankfurt, Vienna, London, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Brussels, Düsseldorf and Zürich, as well as Hamburg and Dublin. In addition to these, there are numerous charter flights.

In the main city there is the Salzburg trolleybus system and bus system with a total of more than 20 lines, and service every 10 minutes. Salzburg has an S-Bahn system with four Lines (S1, S2, S3, S11), trains depart from the main station every 30 minutes, and they are in the ÖBB net. Suburb line number S1 reaches the world famous Silent Night chapel in Oberndorf in about 25 minutes.

The fortress (background), Salzburg Cathedral (middle), River Salzach (foreground)

Popular culture

In the 1960s, the movie The Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg and the state of Salzburg. The movie was based on the true story of Maria von Trapp, a Salzburg-based nun who took up with an aristocratic family and fled the German Anschluss. Although the film is not particularly popular among Austrians, the town draws many visitors who wish to visit the filming locations, alone or on tours.

Salzburg is the setting for the Austrian crime series Stockinger.

In the 2010 film Knight & Day, Salzburg serves as the backdrop for a large portion of the film.