Salzburg, World Heritage city

The Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg in Austria was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996.

UNESCO abstract : "Salzburg has managed to preserve an extraordinarily rich urban fabric, developed over the period from the Middle Ages to the 19th century when it was a city-state ruled by a prince-archbishop. Its Flamboyant Gothic art attracted many craftsmen and artists before the city became even better known through the work of the Italian architects Vincenzo Scamozzi and Santini Solari, to whom the centre of Salzburg owes much of its Baroque appearance. This meeting-point of northern and southern Europe perhaps sparked the genius of Salzburg’s most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose name has been associated with the city ever since.".

Salburg is also famous for The Sound of Music

View from outside the city showing the fortress and Nonnberg Convent

Cars are not allowed inside the city so we did a walking tour.

Baroque Church of the Cajetans

A narrow passage between tall houses leads to Papageno Square with the statue of the bird catcher from Mozart's Magic Flute -

Note the inscription at the top of the buildings, this relates to keeping the people safe during times of disease.

Shops are still decorated for Christmas until Feb 2

Next stop was Mozart Square with the Salzburg Museum and the Carillon

Christmas Museum

Salzburg Museum & carillon

 The carillon or glockenspiel plays tunes 3 times a day and we were in time for the 11 am chimes

Residenz Square with the side of the cathedral and the Residenz fountain which is covered for the winter. This is the square where the Von Trapp family performed ‘I Have Confidence in Me’ in the movie The Sound of Music.  Maria splashed in the fountain which is the largest Baroque fountain outside of Italy -

Horse and carriage rides from outside the Salzburg Palace, which is now a museum -

The Cathedral faces 3 squares. It is the biggest Romanesque cathedral north of The Alps and is where Mozart was buried. A bomb crashed right through the dome in WW2 but didn't explode.

Modern art in a square with the fortress up on the hill -

This area of cliffs was quarried for stone to build the churches. To the right of the photo was the old Riding School but the Nazis turned it into a Festival Hall in 1925 as part of the first festival of Salzburg. The entrance on the left leads to the modern car park for the Festival Hall.
The Festival Hall is the place where the Von Trapps performed ‘So Long, Farewell’ prior to escaping the Nazis in the movie The Sound of Music.

This is Toscinini Square

This is the door the Von Trapps used when they fled from the hall.

Collegiate Church faces University square is used as an open air market -

The back of Mozart's birthplace is also on this square -

And this is the front.

 The door bell pulls are said to be the originals -

By then it was time for refreshment. This is a local dessert

but as it is too big for one person, I settled for cappuccino and torte -

And finally some flowers amid the snow