Mozart's birthplace, Sound of Music hills, and Alpine Baroque grandeur
Salzburg straddles the Salzach River between the Alps with a Baroque old city on one side and Hohensalzburg Fortress looming above both. The city gave the world Mozart, the Sound of Music, and the Mozartkugel chocolate — and its UNESCO-listed Altstadt (old town) is a compact grid of pale stone churches, arcaded plazas, and cafe-filled lanes that have changed little since the Prince-Archbishops who built them left. The Getreidegasse pedestrian street, Mozart's birthplace, and the daily salt-mine cable car to the fortress are the core draws; the Salzburg Festival in July–August fills every conc…
Salzburg's name means 'Salt Fortress' — the city was built on the wealth of the Alpine salt trade, controlled by the Prince-Archbishops who governed it as an independent ecclesiastical principality from 798 CE until Napoleon dissolved their rule in 1803. The Baroque makeover happened mostly under Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau and his successors (1587–1653), who hired Italian architects to transform a medieval town into one of the most complete Baroque ensembles north of the Alps. Mozart was born here in 1756 and spent his formative years in the Archbishop's employ before famously bein…