The Splendour of Salzburg

Amongst the top sights is definitely Schloß Hellbrunn, the palace built by Archbishop Markus Sittikus in the midst of a series of water gardens, complete with grottoes and trick fountains. For those who can’t imagine Salzburg without The Sound of Music, there’s a little bit of movie memorabilia at Hellbrunn- in one corner of the park surrounding the palace is the pavilion in which "I am sixteen, going on seventeen" was filmed.

The Alstadt- the area around the Residenz, beside the Salzach- is crowded with places to see, and we spent lots of time here, wandering around, sitting at cafés, or simply watching the world (including some very quaint horse-drawn carriages) go by. The Residenz itself, from where Salzburg was ruled, is impressive, and the Residenzgalerie has some fine paintings. Around the Residenz are churches, squares, and markets that are worth exploring. The Salzburg Dom, the main cathedral of the city, has a beautifully painted interior. Almost adjacent to the cathedral is yet another imposing church- St Peter’s (Stiftskirche St Peter). The interior of St Peter’s is striking and unusual- it’s painted in white and pale greenish-grey, with stunning frescoes depicting Biblical scenes. Somewhat less beautiful, but very historic, is the Franziskanerkirche, the church of the Franciscans, which stands opposite the Salzburg Dom.

Salzburg owes much of its fame to Mozart, so the house where he was born- the Mozart Geburtshaus, near the Residenz- is suitably important. It’s been converted into a museum, which, though interesting, is somewhat overpriced. Mozart concerts are held all across the city, especially on Friday and Saturday evenings. The Franziskanerkirche and the Stiftskirche St Peter are among the venues for the concerts, although there are others as well.

And yes, among the highlights would definitely be the delectable food offered up by the many cafés, würsthauses, and other eateries of Salzburg. The salads, the schnitzels, the pastries, the coffee- and yes, the chocolates- all are absolutely fantastic!

Quick Tips:

We hadn’t realised how hot Salzburg can actually get in the summer, so here’s a bit of learning: it can get pretty bad, especially in the afternoon. Carry a bottle of water along, and take an umbrella as well- the weather tends to be unpredictable, with sudden showers coming on out of the blue.

Best Way To Get Around:

If you’re keen on cycling, Salzburg is very cyclist-friendly- and there are approximately 150 km of cycle paths in and around the city. If you haven’t brought your own cycle, you can rent one; most hotels offer cycles for hire, plus there are bike rental agencies in town. Check in the city centre. The city centre, by the way, also offers another quaint mode of transportation: horse-drawn carriages. They’re touristy, but fairly picturesque. We weren’t really keen on them, so we chose the next best option: we walked. Since nearly everything is concentrated round the Residenz, it’s anyway fun to stroll along at your own pace.

The Turnerwirt is a lovely, old-fashioned place all right. It stands at the foot of a low wooded hill, and is delightfully quaint. Inside, the prettiness took a slight dive, but it still wasn’t bad. The corridors, which light up as you walk through, were hung with watercolours of animals. Our room, which had a huge window overlooking the hill was very clean, but that was it. It was by far the tiniest I’ve ever stayed in, and our first reaction was a horrified "How are we going to fit?" The double bed was so close to the window (which, to make matters worse, opened inwards) that I nearly bumped my head on the open window. There was a third bed—why, I have no idea, since we hadn’t asked for one. There were two chairs, a luggage rack, a TV (thankfully with BBC), an open wardrobe, actually just a space with a rod and hangers, and two bedside tables. The bathroom was equally miniscule. Sitting on the potty meant keeping your elbows tucked in and resting your chin on the sink. Guaranteed to ensure a quick exit from the loo!

Salzburg was terribly hot, and although we hadn’t expected air-conditioning, the least we’d hoped for were fans, which also were unavailable. "Open the window," was the suggestion. If it hadn’t rained that night- which brought on a cool breeze- we’d probably have slept very little.

The next morning brought further unpleasant surprises: breakfast was from 6:30 to 10, but when we arrived at 9:30, there was very little left—and no signs of replenishments. We had some muesli, rolls with preserves, fruit yoghurt (so warm it had turned to liquid—Tarun drank it), and orange juice. There’d apparently been cold cuts too, but only two shrivelled pieces of ham were left on the tray. And when we poured milk into our coffee, it curdled.

I can, with all modesty, say that we aren’t demanding guests. We didn’t even ask for other extras, unlike an American who’d just checked in. He asked where he could surf the Net, and was told to go to the market. He asked what facilities there were for fitness, and got a classic answer: "The mountain." This with a thumb jabbed in the direction of the hill.

Considering we paid €85 per night, Turnerwirt was a disappointment. The only saving grace is the location—there’s a direct bus (number 4) from the city centre, and the hill’s pretty. Otherwise, don’t expect much. In fact, since it doesn’t have either a lift or bellboys, just about all you can expect is to get to lug your bags upstairs, all by yourself. Might be a draw for fitness fanatics, methinks.

One last warning: there’s a curfew: 10:30pm.

Like most other restaurants, this one too has seating inside and outside. All the tables inside the restaurant were occupied, so we asked for one outside. We were told, rather apologetically by a very young blond waiter, that we could share a table with another couple, if that was okay with us, and with them, presumably. It didn’t come to that, however, since a table got vacated just then and we sat down, under one of the bright umbrellas outside.

The menu, which was in both English and German (and, thankfully, with descriptions) had us spoilt for choice- there was just so much that sounded delicious. Soups, salads, schnitzel, the works. I finally settled for a Wiener Backhendl, while Tarun ordered a goulash with bread dumpling.

The food came fast, and tasted as good as it looked. The goulash was delicious, the meat tender and well flavoured with paprika. The bread dumpling was nice and herby, and was generally pronounced by Tarun to be "not bad." As far as my meal was concerned: well, it was a smash hit from beginning to end! The menu described it as fried chicken with mixed vegetable and pumpkin seed oil salad; what I got was closer to ambrosia. The chicken was crumb-fried, golden crisp and studded with pumpkin seeds on the outside, wonderfully tender on the inside. On the side came the salad: boiled potato, crisp mixed leaves, red and green bell peppers, and tomatoes with a light and flavourful dressing of balsamic vinegar and pumpkin seed oil drizzled over. I’d rate this as one of the best meals I’ve had in Europe: truly a delight.

The portion sizes were large, so we were pretty full by the end of the meal. But this being Austria, we couldn’t resist the temptation to order dessert- a topfenstrudel, paperthin pastry with a filling of cream cheese. It was, as we’d started to expect by then, delicious, although I was a little disappointed to find that it didn’t have any raisins in it.

Our bill, including a beer for Tarun and a Coke for me, came to €27. The service had been so efficient and friendly that we added a tip of a further €3- our waiter was such a gem, he deserved it.

All in all, this was a great place, and one I’d go back to any day. The food was superb, the ambience was comfortable and relaxed, the service was good, and best of all, it was affordable.

The café was pretty full by then, so we sat at a table at the outdoor Kiosk Tomaselli. The café, by the way, is no spring chicken: it’s been around since 1753 (although the inn to which it’s attached dates back to 1705). The interior is all wood and marble, while the terrace outside offers a good view of the square. The kiosk is really just that: a smallish room from where they dispense food and drink to the tables set up outside, under the cooling shade of chestnut trees.

The menu, now that we were keen on coffee, looked much more interesting than it had in the beginning. As expected, Tomaselli specialises in coffees: espresso, melange (I developed a weakness for this in Austria: a delightfully smooth coffee with cream); cappuccino, and more. We were feeling so hot that we ended up ordering eis café- in the fond belief that this would be cold coffee of some sort. Surprise, surprise! We got two stemmed glasses, each filled to the brim and beyond with glorious coffee ice cream, and topped with swirls of whipped cream. Sinful, but utterly delicious.

We’d already got something to eat, so the ice cream was a bonus in that department. We’d been looking at the menu (which includes old favourites like apfelstrudel, topfenstrudel and guglhupf) when a plump, matronly waitress came around with a huge tray overflowing with pastries. "Would you like to try something from here?" she asked us, lowering it onto our table and rattling off the names of all the goodies. I barely caught any of those names, but everything she carried on that tray looked mouth-watering. Eventually, I settled for a sponge cake topped with custard and fresh fruit, while Tarun had a cake topped with fresh raspberries. Each cost us €3.20; along with the eis cafés and a tip, the bill came to €14.

Final verdict: a nice place, and one I’d loved to have visited again. It’s very relaxed (I saw people sitting around for a couple of hours), and the desserts are delicious. The only thing that could be better is the service: we kept sitting around, looking obviously as if we were twiddling our thumbs- for more than five minutes before someone came to take our orders. Other than the waitress with the tray of cakes, I could only see two other waiters around, and they looked most overworked.

Our food was brought swiftly, and consisted of two large pieces of bratwürst, a generous dollop of mustard, and a huge helping of sauerkraut. The sausage was tender, and the sauerkraut well aged: sour, just faintly sweet, and with tiny crisp bits of bacon in it. Tarun ordered a beer- a local Stiegl, which was gloriously mellow. I later came to know that Stiegl has been brewed since 1492, and the Stiegl Brauwelt is Europe’s largest beer exhibition: you can visit it to see how the beer’s made.

Anyway- back to our meal. After the main course, we ordered a dessert each- I a topfenstrudel and Tarun an apfelstrudel. Both were hot, dusted over with confectioner’s sugar, and amazing. My topfenstrudel, in particular, was a delight: creamy, faintly tart, just a little sweet, and studded with raisins. Delicious!
I’d rate Resch and Lieblich high on the list of good value-for-money eateries in Salzburg. The service is friendly and efficient, the food was good, the portion sizes were satisfying, and the bill came to a very affordable €19.70.

The Residenzgalerie spreads across about half a dozen rooms, all hung with paintings: landscapes, portraits, allegories, still lifes. Still life is not something that really appeals to me, but the portraits are stunning. There’s a Rembrandt, depicting an old woman at prayer; and there’s a Makart, a portrait of the artist’s first wife. This painting was a personal favourite of mine: I found myself wandering back to it every now and then. The woman, clad in white and black, is looking at the viewer with an expression that’s distinctly supercilious. The brushwork isn’t spectacular, but the look on the subject’s face is awesome. Another painting that I fell in love with was one by Friedrich Georg Waldmüller, of three children standing at a window. The window frame falls just within the frame of the painting itself, and the three children, almost tumbling out of the window in their eagerness to see something outside, almost appear as if they’re falling out of the picture. Delightful!

Among the landscapes (most of which depict Salzburg itself), one that caught my attention was an unfinished one. This painting is in various stages of progress: portions of it are complete, perfect in every detail; other parts are just the preliminary ink sketch; and the rest- a small section- consists of a pale brownish underwash over the ink drawing. An interesting example of how a work of art moves forward, in painstaking stages.

There are some famous names here- Friedrich Loos and Pieter Breughel are among the ones that spring first to mind- but there are also lesser-known artists. A small collection, easily doable in about an hour, and very pleasant.

It cost us €3 each; the combined ticket to the State Rooms and the Residenzgalerie is €7.30 each, with a free audio guide thrown in. The Residenzgalerie and State Rooms open at 10 (when they’re open!) daily between May and October; the rest of the year, they open only between Monday and Friday. The place shuts down by 4.30 in summer and by 5 in winter.

Inside, the cathedral is a riot of splendidly worked stucco and frescoes, all most impressive. The stucco, in particular, was of a style I hadn’t seen before: each line was picked out in a dark blackish grey, which was very striking indeed. And considering the fact that all the chapels had intricate stucco work all over the walls and ceilings, it made for a rather overwhelming experience. Although we didn’t know it at the time, the baptismal font in this cathedral is the one where Mozart was baptised. Later, as court organist for Salzburg, Mozart composed a lot of sacred music which was (and continues to be) played on the massive main organ of the cathedral.

Equally impressive is the turbulent history of the cathedral. The first church at this spot was constructed as early as 774, but in the centuries since then, there has been a lot of renovation and reconstruction. The first phase of reconstruction happened around 1177, in the wake of the cathedral’s being burnt down in 1167 by the followers of the emperor Friedrich Barbarossa. The rebuilt cathedral, a magnificent example of Romanesque architecture, lasted a further four hundred years; in 1598, another fire destroyed large portions of it. The ruling Archbishop of the time, Wolf Dietrich, ruthlessly demolished what remained, but was imprisoned by his nephew and successor Markus Sittikus before he could set about building a replacement. Sittikus, instead, got the church rebuilt as a Baroque cathedral- although he himself did not live to see its consecration. The cathedral suffered further damage during bombings in World War II, when the dome and part of the chancel were shattered. Repairs were carried out in 1959, so parts of what you see today are actually less than fifty years old.

A little bit about the cathedral now. Stiftskirche St Peter was set up, along with a monastery, by the Frankish missionary Rupert in about 700 AD. The building endured till 1127, when it was burnt. It took the abbot thirteen years, starting 1130, to have it rebuilt, this time as a three-naved basilica in the Romanesque style. Some changes to the cathedral were carried out in the 1700’s, when rococo elements such as the decorative altars along the sides were added.

The monks of St Peter’s have long been associated with learning, music and theatre, and this is reflected in the church as well. It contains a marble plaque in memory of Mozart’s sister Nannerl (herself an accomplished musician), and a memorial to Haydn. Haydn, incidentally, composed his `Rupert Mass’ for St Peter’s. Another piece of music that is linked to St Peter’s is Mozart’s `Dominicus Mass’, which he composed, when he was only thirteen years old, for Abbot Hagenauer. Performances of Mozart’s music are still held at St Peter’s regularly, most of them on Fridays and Saturdays. Sacred music as such is high on the list of priorities at St Peter’s, and there are concerts- especially of Mozart and Haydn- throughout the year. More details are available at the church website, www.stift-stpeter.at, although it’s only in German.

The International Mozart Foundation converted the house into a museum way back in 1880, but the current form of the museum is only about twelve years old. Even when we visited, it was undergoing renovations and changes, with restyling being done by Robert Wilson.

The Mozart Museum spreads across a series of rooms, beginning at the room where he was born. In the centre of this room is a white wooden crib in which is laid a baby-sized doll: very spooky. On the walls, and in the adjacent rooms, are paintings, sketches and silhouettes of Mozart and his family. As you go from one wooden-floored room to the next, you see more Mozart memorabilia: locks of his hair (rather a lot of this: the poor man either lost a lot of hair, or got chased by fans waving barber scissors); an embroidered silk wallet; an agate tobacco case; violins (including one he owned as a child), and sheets of music written in his own hand. In addition, there are dioramas depicting a performance of a Mozart opera; details of opera costumes; and information about the opera singers of Mozart’s time.

The sections designed by Robert Wilson combine the classicism of Mozart’s age with twenty-first century art. In one room, glass cases embedded in the black walls hold exhibits; in another, Mozart’s biography is written in flowing white calligraphy, in different languages, all across the dark brown walls. In yet another highly unusual room, old framed prints of Salzburg city hang upside-down in a room that’s upside-down too: a three-dimensional model of Salzburg hangs from the ceiling, its spires and domes reaching down towards a floor that’s pierced by tiny pinpricks of illuminated star-like glass. Interesting, pretty- though not particularly relevant to Mozart as a theme, perhaps.

We shelled out €6 per person to visit the museum, and were, truth to tell, somewhat dissatisfied. Okay, this was Mozart’s house, but in a Mozart Museum, I’d really have expected much more that actually related to the man himself. The museum tells you lots about opera, banquets, medieval Salzburg, and the like- maybe it could have concentrated a bit more on Mozart.

The Mozart Geburtshaus is open daily from 9 to 6, extending up to 7 in July and August. Get there early, because it tends to fill up fast.

Archbishop Markus Sittikus built Schloß Hellbrunn as a pleasure resort between 1612 and 1619. He came here for breaks- and (or so it seems) to play pranks on his acquaintances. The Wasserspiele isn’t just pretty channels, fish-filled pools and grottoes; it’s also trick fountains that squirt water when you’re least expecting it. We were first led to a stone table and stools where Sittikus hosted alfresco meals. Our guide called for volunteers to sit- and get drenched seconds later by water erupting from the stools! Much squealing later, we were led down a gravel pathway, past tiny grottoes, each containing figures performing mechanical tasks. Sittikus had these designed to work by hydraulic power, and 400 years later, they still work. Along the same lines is the impressive Mechanical Theatre, a large model depicting a medieval town. The theatre contains 200 figures, of which 138 move rhythmically when the water flows. In the Crown Grotto, a bronze crown shoots up in the air- and stays there, atop a jet of water. By the time we emerged from the Wasserspiele, we were fascinated, amused- and wet. We dried out with a walk in the park (in one corner stands the pavilion where "I am sixteen going on seventeen" from The Sound of Music was filmed), and then headed for the palace.

We got free audio guides at the Reception, and ascended to the first floor. Though sparsely furnished- they aren’t carpeted of furnished- these rooms reveal much about Sittikus and his love for the unusual. Instead of luxury, there’s exotica here, especially from the animal world. The Bird Room is hung with paintings of rare and exotic birds; similarly, the Fish Room has paintings of rare- or exceptionally large- fish.

On a different note, the Festival Hall is painted with murals depicting a Roman forum. The murals use painted columns and figures to make the room appear larger. Murals (one depicting Sittikus himself) also decorate the Octagonal Room. The domed ceiling of this room, painted a deep orange, is striking, and has an octagonal opening that aids the room’s acoustics.

The palace, though not sumptuous, is small and pleasant. Combined with the Wasserspiele and the surrounding park, it’s a nice place for a visit- maybe even a picnic.

Hellbrunn opens at 9. Closing times vary: it closes at 10 in July and August, at 4.30 in April and October, and at 5.30 in May, June and September. Entry fees differ, too: individuals pay €8.50 per head, although students and senior citizens get discounts, as do groups. To reach Hellbrunn from the city centre, take bus number 25.