Explore Salzburg

Mozart's Birthplace is the house at Getreidegasse 9 where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756; his family lived on the third floor from 1747 to 1773. A museum since 1880, run by the Mozarteum Foundation, it shows his childhood violin, portraits, letters and early editions of his music.

Getreidegasse is a narrow shopping street in Salzburg's old town, lined with tall townhouses and wrought-iron guild signs that hang above the shop fronts. Covered passages lead through the houses to inner courtyards, and Mozart was born in the house at No. 9.

Residenzplatz is the large square at the heart of Salzburg's old town, laid out from 1587 under Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau. It is framed by the cathedral, the Alte Residenz and the Neue Residenz with its carillon tower, and its centre holds the Baroque Residenz Fountain of 1656–1661.

DomQuartier Salzburg is a museum route opened in 2014 that links the Residenz, the cathedral and St Peter's Abbey around Cathedral Square. A circular tour leads through the prince-archbishops' state rooms, the Residenzgalerie paintings, the organ gallery above the cathedral nave, the Cathedral Museum and the St Peter's Museum.

Salzburg Cathedral is the Baroque cathedral of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, dedicated to Saints Rupert and Vergilius. Built to plans by Santino Solari and consecrated in 1628 on the site of churches dating back to 774, it has a twin-towered marble facade, a large crossing dome and the font in which Mozart was baptised.

The Mozart Residence on Makartplatz, also called the Tanzmeisterhaus, was the home of the Mozart family from 1773 to 1787; Wolfgang Amadeus lived here from the age of 17 to 25. Badly damaged by a bomb in 1944 and later rebuilt, it reopened in 1996 as a museum of the Mozarteum Foundation, with instruments, documents and family portraits.

St Peter's Abbey is a Benedictine monastery founded in 696 by Saint Rupert, the oldest in the German-speaking area with an unbroken history. Visitors can enter the abbey church, given its Rococo interior in the 18th century, walk through St Peter's Cemetery and climb to the catacombs cut into the Mönchsberg cliff.

The Festungsbahn is the funicular that climbs from Festungsgasse in Salzburg's old town to Hohensalzburg Fortress. It opened in 1892 as a water-ballast funicular, was electrified in 1960 and received new cars with panoramic windows in 2011; the short ride passes close under the fortress walls.

Hohensalzburg Fortress stands on the Festungsberg above Salzburg's old town, begun in 1077 under Archbishop Gebhard and enlarged by later prince-archbishops. About 250 metres long, it is reached on foot or by the FestungsBahn funicular; inside are the princely state rooms and several museums.

Mirabell Palace was built in 1606 for Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau and remodelled in the 1720s by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt. It now houses the mayor's office of Salzburg; in front lie the formal Mirabell Gardens with flower beds, fountains, statues and a dwarf garden laid out around 1695.

Nonnberg Abbey is a Benedictine convent on the slope below Hohensalzburg Fortress, founded around 714 by Saint Rupert and the oldest continuously existing nunnery in the German-speaking world. The enclosure is closed to visitors, but the late-Gothic church with its Romanesque frescoes and the cemetery are open.

Hellbrunn Palace is an early Baroque summer residence on the southern edge of Salzburg, built in 1613–1619 for Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus von Hohenems. Its grounds hold the trick fountains, with hidden water jets, grottoes and a water-driven mechanical theatre of 1750 with some 200 figures, set in a large park.