Day 14 Salzburg
 April
17, 2005. Our final day in Salzburg and again the
weather was great. The forecast was for rain but we woke up to our 3rd
straight sunny day. A little cooler than yesterday with the temperature about 60
degrees.
Today was a day to enjoy the
history and culture of Salzburg. We started off by visiting the birthplace of
Mozart on Getreide Gasse, just up the street from our hotel. The Mozart family
live on the 3rd floor and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born there in
1756. Today the 3rd floor is a museum full of memorabilia from the 18th
century. We were able to see original furniture and objects from Mozart’s
childhood, such as his tiny violin and piano. Like most of the European museums
you get an audio headset which gives you the history of each room and objects in
English as you walk through the home.
From Mozart’s birthplace we
walked up to the Residence Square. The square is the biggest and grandest of the
five old city squares and forms the heart of the old town. It is flanked on one
side by the Residence and on the other by the New Residence, with the Cathedral
of St. Michael’s on the other two sides. The Residence Square Fountain is the
most beautiful of the many fountains in Salzburg. It was erected in 1656 by
fountain-loving Archbishop Guidobald Thun.
We walked across the square
and entered the Residence which is the former palace of the Prince-Archbishops.
Work on the building started just before 1600 and was not completed until 1628.
The building is grouped around three courtyards. From the outside it is not
particularly elegant, but it certainly magnificent on the inside.
In the first courtyard there
is an impressive series of pilasters and in the entrance a fountain with a
gigantic statue of Hercules. A broad staircase leads up to the state apartments.
The original furniture and decorations did not survive the looting by Napoleon’s
soldiers, but the City of Salzburg has done well to assemble replacements that
show what these rooms were like in glory days.
 The
3rd floor of the Residence is now an art gallery that includes over
200 works of European masterpieces. If you close your eyes you can imagine the
splendor of the court in the 17th Century when the elegantly dressed
citizens came to pay their respects to the Prince-Archbishop.
After leaving the Residence
we walked across the square to the cathedral. The current cathedral was built in
1985 and is immense. The building is 300 feet long and has room for 10,500
worshippers. With its tall, ornate façade, twin towers and dome, it is the main
feature of baroque Salzburg. The entrance is through a dimly lit vestibule,
which makes all the greater the impact of the spacious, bright, and by baroque
standards, a plain interior. More elegant barocque architecture is to be found
in the chapels on either side of the high alter. We got there just after 12 as
mass was finishing. Two minutes too late to enjoy the organ, with its 2,000
pipes.
From the cathedral we move
out of old town and across the river. We were tired so we stopped at the
majestic Sacher Hotel to enjoy a cappuccino. The hotel is just across the street
from Mozart’s House which was next on our schedule.
By 1773 Leopold Mozart (the
father) could afford more spacious accommodations than the three room apartment
in Getreide Gasse so he moved his family across the river to Makart Platz. This
is a picturesque square dominated by Trinity Church.
The eight room house as
called the Dancing Master’s House after a previous tenant. Here there was plenty
of room for a family of musicians. And it was here that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
composed all his Salzburg works.
The elegant “dancing
master’s” room was big enough for concerts. There was also a garden where the
family shot with air guns at humorously painted targets, some of which are still
on display in the house.
That finished our culture day
in Salzburg and to end it we did something totally out of character for
Salzburg. Nancy and I enjoy Chinese food and often order it in when we are at
home. However, we have never been together to a Chinese restaurant. There a
number of excellent Chinese restaurants in Salzburg and we enjoyed a quiet
dinner in one of them.
Tomorrow we’re off to Vienna
for four more days of culture.
Stay tuned for Day 15 in my
“Around the World in 30 Days” saga.
Alan Salmon
eClub One
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