Salzburg is a city in central Austria near the German border. It is the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791). This city is linked with the Sound of Music; a movie shot in various locations in Salzburg and its sourrondings.
I visited Salzburg around two years ago. I visited the main sights in the city, but I am sure there are many other things to see there.
In this post I will write about some things not to miss in the city.
The Getreidegasse is a long pedestrian street in the old town. It is bordered by lots of shops, cafes and restaurants. At number 9 on this street Mozart was born in 1756. He lived here until he was seventeen.
The iron wrought signs hanging on the walls of the buildings is a peculiarity on this street. The reason for these signs is that long ago people wasn' t able to read, so they could see from them what they were selling at the shops there.
There is a Mc Cafe at the Getreidegasse. It is part of Mc Donald' s. It is a coffee shop where you can have a cup of coffee or cappuccino or a cake at a moderate price.
Here you can also have a good choice of cakes to chose from. At Mc Cafe they also have a kind of package offer. The times I was there it was a large cup of cappuccino and a piece of cake with cream with a topping of strawberries or peaches.
I liked the strawberries cake with cream (i. e. Erdbeer Butter Milk Schnitte). also had a taste of a chocolate cake (my mother chose it) . It was not a piece of Sacher cake, but it was really good.
There are several arcades on the Getreidegasse. Walking through them you will discover some beautiful courtyards with cafes and shops.
A nice courtyard.
Another courtyard.
Christmas in Salzburg is a shop where you can find a lots of Christmas and Easter decorations all year.
Here there are decorations for other events and festivities as well; as Halloween for instance.
Here they sell mostly hand painted emptied eggs. These are really nicely decorated and they are sold at various prices. I think the cheapest ones should cost around four or five euros.
This shop is quite large. It is made of two rooms if my memory serves me well. It is forbidden to take pictures inside this shop. I don' t know why.
The Alter Markt is a large square not far from Getreidegasse. Here you see a big fountain; the Saint Florian' s fountain.
Several old buildings surround this square. One of them is the smallest house in Salzburg (see picture). It was built between 1830 and 1860. On the same side of this house there is the popular Cafè Tomaselli.
On the other side of the square a tall pale green palace houses a old pharmacy. It was founded in 1591.
There are some beautiful shops at Alter Markt as well.
Kapitelplatz (chapter square) is a large square situated near the cathedral and below the castle.
One of its main features is a huge sculpture of a golden ball with a man on the top called Sphaera. Near this sculpture there is a large chess board where you can play. On this square there is a fountain built in 1732 on the site of an old horse pond.
Usually there are some stalls at Kapitelplats. At one of these you can buy pretzels of various flavours.
The cathedral. Saint Rupert founded the church in 774 on the ruins of a Roman construction. In 767 the bishop Virgil built another church on this site. He might have used the foundations by saint Rupert to construct it. In 842 the church burned down after being struck by a lightning.
They started to rebuild the cathedral after three years. Between 1000 and 1147 the church was extended and modified . In 1167 it was on fire again. It was rebuilt 10 years later. 400 years later another fire destroyed large sections of the cathedral.
In the seventeenth century it was completely rebuilt in the Baroque style. The dome was damaged during World War II but was restored in 1959.
The only museum I visited in Salzburg was the toy museum. is housed in a old alms house; the Buergerspital; built between 1556 and 1570.
Here you can see a good number of old toys; dolls, miniature trains and cars; table games, puppets and more.
There is even a couple of rooms, maybe more, where kids can play with toys they find there. Adults can have a cup of tea for free in a room while their kids are playing.
Sometimes events are organized at this museum. I visited it around Halloween and a kind of Halloween party was going on.
Every tuesday and wednesday a puppet show is held at this museum.
I visited Saint Peter' s abbey and the cemetery. Saint Rupert (again!) founded this church and its monastery around 700. The church and the buildings were destroyed by a fire in 1127. The church was rebuilt from 1130 to 1143. It was modified through the years.
The church you see today was built from about 1130 onwards. The interior was refurbished in the Rococo style from 1760 to 1782.
Near the church you see the Peterfriedhof. This is the oldest cemetery in Salzburg. Its origins probably date back to around 700 It was possibly built on the site of an earlier burial place.
Into the Festunberg; the mountain that overlooks the cemetery there are some catacombs. I didn' t visited any.
Some famous people who lived in the city are buried at the Peterfriedhof. Here you can find the graves of Santino Solari; Michael Haydn; composer and younger brother of Joseph Haydn. Anna Maria Mozart was also buried here. She was the elder sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The Mirabell gardens were laid out from 1687. They were altered in 1730 and changed again in the 19th century. These are made of various areas with several attractions as the Zwerglgarten (i. e.dwarfs garden). This garden is made of a series of stone dwarfs statues. They are 17, but long ago they may have been 28. They were modelled on real life persons. Besides these statues the gardens house an orangery and various statues.
The Mirabell Palace was originallly named Altenau. It was built for prince archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Ratenau and for his mistress Salomè Alt in 1606.
The palace was renamed Mirabel by von Raitenau' s successor Markus Sittikus von Hohenems.
Prince archbishop Franz Anton von Harrach had the palace remodelled extensively from 1721 to 1727. In 1818 the palace was heavily damaged by a fire.
Today Mirabell Palace houses the office of Salzburg' s mayor and the municipal offices.
One of the main sights of Salzburg is the Hohensalzburg fortress.
It is possible there was a Roman fortress on the site of this citadel. Yes, Hohensalzburg fortress is a kind of little village on a hill. The first buildings on its site were built by prince archbishop Eberhard in 1077. The fortress was enlarged between 1495 and 1519.
This fortress houses some museums. One of them is a museum of marionettes. I liked it very much and I spent a lot of time there. There is also a museum with a collection of weapons and a museum with various things.
Another highlight of this fortress are the state apartments dated to 1500. Inside this citadel there is also a small church and a couple of chapels.
Inside the fortress area there are a couple of restaurants and a souvenirs shop.
The fortress also serves as a venue for evening concerts.
Inside the state apartments.
Elaborated door into the state apartments
View from the fortress.
It was a pity the day I visited the fortress was not fine, but the views from there are stunning even if it is not sunny.
I spent five nights at hotel Haunspergerhof. It is a nice three stars hotel situated in Haunspergstraße at n. 30. It takes around fifteen minutes from the train station to get there.
The twin room they gave me was simply furnished and large enough for two people. It had the bathroom with tube en suite; a television, but it didn' t have a fridge.
The breakfast was buffet style. It consisted of various kinds of bread, jam, butter and a kind of pastry. There were also cold cuts, cheeses and eggs. Moreover there was yoghurts and some fruit. Hot beverages, as coffee and hot milk and hot water for tea were in thermos flasks.
This hotel has a communal room which is part of the reception area. Wi fi was free of charge there.
Il Padrino is the closest restaurant to hotel Hanspergerhof, so it was convenient for me to have dinner there. This restaurant has two dining rooms and an outside area.
At Il Padrino they have a menu with many of Italian dishes. They serve pasta dishes and various kinds of pizza. I had some kind of pizzas here and I liked them much.
It is advisable to book your seat at this restaurants. It seems lots of local people likes this place very much.
I hope to return to Salzburg quite soon.
This featured blog entry was written by Maurizioagos from the blog My travels..
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