Salzburg and Sound of Music

 Friday September 29 2023. - touring Salzburg. 

Before the brief history, I will give you a run down of what we did in Salzburg.  Thursday night, we just toured around the city for an hour, then went out to dinner in old town Salzburg and had Wiener schnitzel. 

Friday was a full day.  We started with a guided tour of the city for 2-3 hours.  Then we had a cooking class to make Apple strudel, then ate lunch, was entertained by a young singer and waited for the strudel to cook.  After that, myself and another couple from the tour went on a 3.5 hour, 15km, bike ride to see all of the Sound of music sights that were accessible around town.  After that, dinner and Mozart concert up at the castle/fortress on the hill.  Hopefully, some good pictures wi follow.  

The name Salzburg means salt castle, and the town was established because it was on the main salt trading route.  Back then, not only was salt used for preserving, but it was used for currency.  The Celts were the first that exploited the salt mining in 5th century BC, in the mountains around Salzburg.  In approximately 50BC Roman’s moved in and took over.  

In 488 AD the Romans left and then Salzburg was just ruins until 600 AD the Bavarians moved in.  The Bishop Rupert in 696 started building monestary of St. Peter’s which is the oldest part of Salzburg. For more than 1000 years Salzburg was an independent state ruled by Catholic Arch Bishops. Around 1590 one powerful Arch Bishop. (Archbishop Maximilian Joseph von Tarnóczy) resided here from 1851 to 1863, had a mistress, 15 children and built the Mirabelle palace and surrounding gardens.  This palace is now a tour destination, not only because of its beauty, but because parts of the Sound of Music were filmed there, the locals must get married there in the town hall and there is nightly Mozart music performed there. 

From 1803 to 1816, Salzburg was secularized and changed empires several times until Napoleon was defeated in 1816 and it was handed over to Austria.  

You will see from some of the pictures that it was hard to expand and build homes here. The river cuts through town and next to the mountains.  Some of the older buildings and the castle were built right into the rock.  Because of this there is special architectural because of this. 

To us in the states, Salzburg is known for Mozart and Sound of Music (side note, the Sound of Music is not popular here. First because while there is a Von Trapp family from here, the movie tells a little different story than it is, and they don’t like to be reminded of WWII and Austria and Germanys role in it).  Mozart was born in Salzburg, and the last bishop of Salzburg before Napoleon hired Mozart to stay there for a while and compose only for him and the church. Mozart ended up moving to Vienna and dies at 35 - no descendants. Mozart nationality was Salzburg because this was an independent country then. 

WWII did not totally destroy this town like Munich.  As the Allie’s approached, the Nazi general (contrary to orders) surrendered to the Americans and because of that the city had minimal damage from bombing.  But because of the war, there are still only 70 Jewish people left in Salzburg. After war, it did not feel safe to them so they went to Vienna or on to North America or Palestine.   

Hello from Salzburg.   This is a picture looking down river and away from the city.  

Here is looking up river towards the city.  The fortress is on the hill in the background (High Salzburg Fortress is the large medieval fortress in the city of Salzburg  Austria . The fortress is 250 m (820 ft) long and 150 m (490 ft) wide making it one of the largest medieval castles in Europe).

In the old part of Salzburg, signs have to look a certain way to keep the “old look” to the city.  You will see in the next few pictures why that is - but I thought I would start with this McDonalds sign, which I thought was pretty cool.  Unfortunately, all the buildings in this area all have pretty strict building codes and McDonalds has opted to close this store in December.  Bummer, there goes the coolest McDonald’s sign that I have ever seen. 

This is the umbrella makers shop

This is the hat maker shop with the apothecary shop right behind.  Back in the days when people didn’t read, signs like these were used so that you knew where to go for the different goods and services.  

These hard boiled eggs were at our breakfast buffet!

Mirabella Gardens 

This was the entrance to Mirabella gardens.   I though I would be silly.

Another picture of the gardens. 

I must of been in a silly mood. This picture was taken on the walking tour of Salzburg.

The top picture is the front of the house where Amadeus Mozart was born. The bottom picture is the back of the house.  It now houses a small museum.  

Dom zu Salzburg - St. Peter’s 

Baptismal font at Saint Peter’s.

The only part of the St Peters church that was desk during the war was the dome. It had to be rebuilt. The picture below shows the destruction, but the centuries old alters were all spared.  

Here we are heading into the cooking class.  You can see that the building was built into the rock. 

Starting our demonstration. 

Here is my cooking group.  We made a fabulous strudel! 

This picture is all of us cooking, but you can see the ceiling and the walls.  They are all a part of the mountain! 

Getting ready to start the bike tour for the Sound of Music sites.  My legs were a bit unsteady to start.   The following several pictures are of places from scenes in the movie. 

This was a very quick pst in the movie where Uncle Max pulled up with the kids to the opera house where they were going to practice singing. 

Julie Andrews and the kids ran around this fountain, the. Jumped on the steps in the background when singing Do Re Me.  

Outside of Opera house where they sang 

This gate is where Rolph give the Nazi Salute to Uncle Max. 

A Nazi flag was hanging from this building when the captain came home after being in Vienna on his honeymoon.  When they filmed and put the flag up, it set off a panick with the locals.  It has been less than 15 years since the Nazis left and it was still a touchy subject. 

Julie Andrews splashed in this fountain when singing “I got confidence” 

The graveyard they used for the Escape at the end of the movie.  While this graveyard was used for some shots, Where they hid behind graves was back at the studios.  This actual graveyard did not have enough room to hide behind the grave stones. 

Salzburg view from the convent the actual Maria Von Trapp lived in. 

This gate to the actual convent that the actual Maria lived in was as used in several scenes.  Maria arriving at convent, kids coming to get her back after she leaves them.  Maria leaving convent to go to Von Trapps etc

This is the actual convent church.  While not used in the movie, the real Maria got married here.  It is still an active convent, she really was a novice there and no other people have ever been married there. 

On the path in front of the front of the Von Trapp movie home.  The back of the house scenes used another home. 

Front of the house home.  This is actually a music school.  They were not allowed to film

Spot where Maria is clicking her heels and running down the lane in “I’ve got confidence “.

More front of home.  Also, When they tried to push their car out quietly to escape, this was around these front walls.  But the Nazis were waiting. 

This was used as the back of the house for several scenes, including kids falling in the lake, the baroness standing on the balcony to watch the captain and Maria fall in love, Rolph throwing stones at the house and all gazebo scenes.  This is a hotel and we could only view it from across the lake. 

Me still being silly both at the front of the house and at the gazebo.    

This was the top of the Do Re Me steps. 

This is my last Sound of Music picture.  It is of the do re me steps where the kids jump up and down on them and Maria ends at the top. 

Pictures top and bottom are of Salzburg at night from the fortress on the top of the mountain. 

Picture of Salzburg fortress tower 

Me eating dinner at the fortress before heading to the Mozart concert. 

Mozart concert . 

I added these 4 pictures from my bike tour after I first published the blog.  They are from the tour groups website!   This first one is in front of the convent.

By the back of the Avon Trapp home 

I’m on the far left side - pretending to be Maria! 

Bicycling through the countryside with the Salzburg fortress in the background .  

Good night