Things to do in Salzburg

In Italian, ‘mirabile’ means amazing. And the Mirabell Palace, tucked up between the Salzach River and the rising peak of the Kapuzinerberg, is certainly that. Built, as so many of Salzburg's palaces were, by one of the city's Prince Archbishops, it has been a lovers' hideaway, a Baroque glory and a neoclassical summer-home for the Emperor. The Palace remains a sumptuous temple to love inside—its famed Marble Staircase the ultimate prop for many weddings. But it's the outside that grabs the attention first. The Mirabell gardens are some of the most elegantly arranged in Salzburg.

In a city of dramatic vistas and astounding buildings, it takes a church of epic imagination to stand out amongst all the spectacle. Salzburg Cathedral (Salzburger Dom) manages that challenge with consummate ease—a cathedral scaled to fit in among Salzburg's rearing mountains and fortresses, while quietly outshining them with its bold Baroque design. Best-known for its superb 70-metre high copper-green dome, the Dom has always been at the heart of city's religious and social life.

At one end: a sheer climb up, to a mountain of green and grey. At the other: a road that is swallowed by a building, before leaping across the Salzach River. And in between, a crowded corridor of ancient shops, busy boutiques and antique stores–all squeezed tightly beneath a narrow sliver of Salzburg's sky. Welcome to Getreidegasse, the merchant street that has had a thousand years of trade and barter echoing around its narrow alleys and iconic squares.

Mozart’s Birthplace (Mozarts Geburthaus) is the childhood home of one of the world’s most famous and prodigious composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Following his birth in 1756, Mozart lived here with his family until 1773. Mozart’s Birthplace became a museum in 1880 and has acquired numerous original artifacts from the composer’s widow and children. It presents a fascinating insight into the upbringing, life and talent of a musical genius.

Salzburg definitely has grander (and more historically important) palaces than the Hellbrunn Palace. But it's unlikely you'll find any as playful as this 17th century Baroque villa. Not that the 'Schloss Hellbrunn' is lacking in architectural significance—it is one of the finest examples of the early Baroque styles in Austria. And its historical connections are pretty strong too—the Prince Archbishops of Salzburg built, and then used this palace, from 1612.

The Festung Hohensalzburg is a picture-perfect ideal of a medieval castle. With its many turrets and towers, broad walls and fluttering flags—all standing proud atop the forest-clad Festungsberg mountain—it begs to be snapped. The castle's towers soar another 30 metres above the 240-metre mountain, dominating the skyline of Salzburg's Altstadt (or Old Town quarter). This is a fortress that looks impregnable. And it probably was. It only ever came under serious siege by irate townsfolk, in 1525, during the German Peasants War. They failed to breach the Festung Hohensalzburg, and the 'High Salzburg Fortress' survives to this day, undefeated, and relatively unscathed by war.

Mozart may not have spent much time in Salzburg as an adult (leaving for the bright lights of Paris and Vienna when he was 21) but this city was both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's home town and his birthplace. The refined area around Mozart Square, part of a complex of squares at the heart of Salzburg, is where the city pays homage to its most famous son. It's a square that would have familiar to him – Mozart was born around the corner at 9 Getreidegasse, and even lived on the square with his wife, in the 1770s when it was still called Michaelsplatz.