My Visual Travel Experience: Salzburg

Salzburg, a stunningly beautiful town in Austria near the border with Germany, is a town having a population of ~ 150,000. It certainly ranks amongst my favourite towns anywhere in the world. Salzburg is less than 3 hours by train or road from the Austrian capital, Vienna, and I recommend a visit of atleast 2 days to walk around and explore the town's sights, take in a classical music performance, and go on the Sound of Music tour. 

View of the Dom from Hohensalzburg

The city’s main attractions include the Dom (the large baroque cathedral), the Hohen Salzburg (the medieval castle rising above the town atop a hillock, and the spot from where the town's powerful archbishops used to rule), the Mirabell Palace (with its beautiful gardens adorned with marble sculptures and floral decorations), and the Mozarts Geburtshaus (the birth-place of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the famous composer who lived from 1756 to 1791 and is the town’s most famous son). 

Mirabell Palace

Neptune Fountain

St George's Church at Hohensalzburg

Salzburg is a major cultural centre, and plays host to the annual Salzburger Festspiele, an opera and theatre festival, which began in 1920 and became an annual event.

 

The town was popularized by the 1964 film, the Sound Of Music, which brought out the beauty of the town and its surroundings. Even today, there is a Sound Of Music tour, which takes the visitor to many of the venues where the movie was shot, including places in Austria’s lake district, like Mondsee, just outside the town. Highlights of the tour include Michelskirche, where Maria and Captain Von Trapp got married, and the Leopoldskron Castle, where the famous boating scene took place.

Sound of Music Bus Tour

Michelskirche at Mondsee

High Altar at Michelskirche, Mondsee

Interior of Michelskirche, Mondsee

Marktplatz at Mondsee

Rathaus, the Town Hall, at Mondsee

Leopoldskron Castle

The Dom (Salzburg Cathedral) stands out because of its large dome and two bell towers. It dates back to 1628. The front façade has sculptures of the cathedral’s patron saints Rupert and Virgil, as well as the Saints Peter and Paul.  The nave of the cathedral can accommodate 10,000 people at a time, which was more than the population of Salzburg when the cathedral was built!

Dom

Interior of the Dom

The thousand year old Hohensalzburg castle is perched up on a hill rising above the town and connected to it through a funicular system. This is from where the Archbishops ruled over the town for centuries. The castle was expanded over the centuries, and is one of Europe’s best preserved medieval castles. The complex has a medieval armoury, a Puppet Museum and the small but pretty St George Church.

View from Mirabell Palace of the Dom and Hohensalzburg

Salzburg’s main pedestrian street is Getreidegasse, full of shops and cafes, as well as confectionery shops selling the famous Mozartkugeln chocolates. All shop signages are beautifully decorated. Mozartsgeburtshaus, the house where Wolfganag Amadeus Mozart was born, lies on the street and has paintings of Mozart and his family members, musical instruments used by Mozart, and even a tuft of his hair! The small Blasiuskirche is at one end of the street.

Getreidegasse

Shop signage, Getreidegasse

The Stift St Peter is a Benedictine abbey dating back to the 7th century AD and it was founded by St Rupert, though the present church dates back to the 13th century. There was, however, a lot of work that went into remodeling the abbey in the 17th and 18th centuries. The cemetery behind the abbey is the oldest cemetery in Salzburg. This is where some well known residents of the town were buried, including Nanerl (Mozart’s sister) and Johann Michael Haydn (the brother of composer Joseph Haydn).

Stift St Peter

Graveyard, Stift St Peter

Interior, Stift St Peter

The Mirabell Palace boasts of a beautiful garden, full of flowers, fountains and sculptures. There is also a museum of baroque art. From the gardens, one gets a spectacular view of the town’s main sights, including the Hohensalzburg and the Dom. The garden has a fountain with a Pegasus Statue.

Pegasus Statue at Mirabell Palace

So for me personally, Salzburg offers a lot. It's not just the sights mentioned above, but also great music (it's almost as if Mozart comes alive there, with the town centre famous for its street performances), great food (Salzburg has a branch of Vienna's famous Sacher Hotel, famous for its Sacher Torte, the famous Austrian chocolate cake), and a spectacular surrounding area with its hills and lakes.