From Munich we took a short train to Salzburg, just over the border in Austria. I've wanted to visit the city since I first saw the Sound of Music with my grandparents when I was a little girl. It's one of my favorite movies of all time, and I think there are at least 3 piano books of different versions of the songs in my piano bench back home! As anyone who's seen the movie (and who hasn't?) knows, the film is set in Salzburg during the Anschluss - when Nazi Germany occupied and annexed Austria in 1938. I thought, while we're in the neighborhood, why not check out the real place!
One of "My Favorite Things".
The city of Salzburg was founded in 700 AD when a church and monastery were established here. The Nonnburg Abbey, where the abbey scenes in the movie were filmed and where the real Maria von Trapp was a novice, is still a working nunnery (and thus unfortunately not open to tourists). The name "Salzburg" literally means "Salt Castle", and it's bisected by the river Salzach. The city is nestled in the in Austrian Alps. There's even a parking garage dug into one of the mountains that divide the old and new town. It's still quite beautiful in the winter, although I would have liked to have visited in the summer when it looks like it did in the movie. The locations are still recognizable but it's a little different when there's snow on the ground. I'll just have to come back some day!
Nonnburg Abbey.
Salzburg is perhaps best known for it's musical history. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most famous composers of all time, was born and grew up here (when he wasn't playing the piano in the royal courts of Europe). The Salzburg Music Festival attracts thousands of visitors every summer, and concerts are still performed in the ancient auditorium where the festival in the Sound of Music was filmed. There are also several top-notch music academies here.
Poster advertising the performance of the opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) by W.A. Mozart at 2012 Salzburg Music Festival.
The Mozarteum - one of the excellent music academies in Salzburg.
Mozart Week! January 27th is Mozart's birthday. Every year the festival presents performances of the composer's works.
The house where Mozart was born. The Mozarts lived on the floor just above the Mozart sign.
The most popular tour in Salzburg is, of course, the Sound of Music
tour. In a van with a driver dressed in the traditional short-collared
jacket shown in the firm, we drove around Salzburg and the surrounding
countryside that was used in the movie, singing along to the
soundtrack. Childhood dream come true! I've actually seen several
people (usually over 50) wearing these jackets in Austria and in Munich,
as well as the caps and occasionally the overcoats. It's lovely to see
that people still wear these, and they do look quite sharp! The film is actually relatively unknown in Austria, but it's the driving force behind the tourism industry in Salzburg, although Salzburg and the surrounding areas are quite beautiful and worth visiting on their own merits. My hostel even shows the movie every single evening.
"Do-Re-Mi" in Salzburg.
Until the 19th century, Salzburg was an independent state, governed by a Prince-Bishop. When Napoleon started his conquest of Europe, Salzburg thought it would be safer under the protection of the Austrian Empire, so Salzburg became part of Austria under the Hapsburgs. For many of the Prince-Bishops, I think they were a little more princely than bishopy: they had several palaces and hunting lodges in and around the city, and many had mistresses and several children.
The medieval Festung Hohensalzburg fortress overlooking the city dates from the 11th century.
The Salzach river and the Hohensalzburg fortress in the background.
One of the Prince-Bishop's hunting lodges on the outskirts of the city.
The Gazebo. It was originally used as a greenhouse by an elderly lady but she dedicated it to the film crew when she heard they needed one. Liesl and Rolf dance around it in the rain and Maria and the Captain get engaged in here. It's actually quite small. For the interior filming they built a much larger replica in Hollywood, where they filmed most of the interior shots.
The inside of the gazebo- still has the benches.
"Something Good".
Beautiful park outside the Prince-Bishop's hunting lodge.
One
thing I never realized about the film until I went on this tour is that
the front of the Villa von Trapp is yellow, and the back is white! Who
would paint their house two different colours? They actually used two
different houses. The first house, Schloss Frohnburg, is now a school for schoolteachers
who teach music.
The front of the Villa von Trapp.
This is the lane leading up to the house. It was used for the "I Have Confidence" scene when Maria is running to her new job as the governess. Had lots of fun skipping down this alley with the new friends I made on the tour!
"I Have Confidence".
Our next stop was across the lake from Leopoldskron Palace, which served as the back of the Villa von Trapp. This used to be one of the Prince-Bishop's palaces. It was bought in 1918 by Max Reinhardt, the founder of the Salzburg festival and famous theatre and film director. He used to stage plays here where the audience would have to move from room to room for the various scenes. Today it's used as an American Economics school for exchange students.
Leopoldskron Palace, seen from across the lake. You can just see the Hohensalzburg fortress behind the tops of the trees.
Across the lake from the palace is the lane where the Captain is driving home from Vienna with Baroness Schrader and sees his children climbing trees wearing old drapes!
"Do-Re-Mi" at the Leopoldskron (Villa von Trapp). Hohensalzburg fortress can be seen in the background.
We spent a lovely few hours driving through the mountains that surround Salzburg, passing several ski hills and lake-side towns with picturesque pointed-roof chalets. Many of these are summer homes for wealthy Salzburgers. Our guide told us that in Austria, every man's home is his castle, and that people don't usually sell their house after a few years but hold on to them for life. Some of the outdoor scenes such as "Do-Re-Mi" or "The Sound of Music" were shot up here in the beautiful mountains. They also filmed the opening panoramas by helicopter in this area.
The first town we visited was Sankt Gilgen, on the shores of lake Wolfgangsee ("see" = lake). This picturesque little town was where Mozart's mother was from, and where his sister Anna (Nannerl), also a gifted pianist and composer, lived after she married, and he would often visit her here. There's a ski hill that goes right into the centre of town.
The view approaching Sankt Gilgen.
"Do-Re-Mi"
The Wolfgangsee.
The next town we stopped at was Mondsee, featured in the opening panoramic shots. The church here was used as the interior of the abbey for the wedding scene. The abbey is often used for organ concerts, and its organ was actually used to record the wedding march in the movie. When we got up close to the stairs I realized there were skeletons, some of them outfitted in precious vestments and jewels, in glass cases behind the alter. I never noticed them during the movie - I wonder if they covered them up or if you just couldn't see them. I thought they were actually quite creepy. They're relics, skeletons taken from the Catacombs in Rome, thought to be those of early Christian martyrs. When we went to the Treasury (Schatzkammer) at the Hofburg in Vienna a few days later, I noticed they had plenty of relics, such as bones (fingers, toes, jaws, skulls, femurs...) or teeth, in jeweled casings. It used to be that any self-respecting church would have the relics of some saint or other or of martyrs from the catacombs, which would be venerated. There used to be an entire industry around purveying these holy relics.
Mondsee Abbey.
Mondsee Abbey.
Mondsee Abbey. You can see the long stairs at the end of the aisle, before the alter railing.
Skeletons behind the alter.
The Wedding. "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria (Organ Reprise)". Mondsee Abbey doubles for Nonnburg Abbey.
The best apple strudel (apfelstrudel), an Austrian specialty, that I have ever had was at the Café Braun in Mondsee, across the street from the abbey. Slighty sour, dusted in icing sugar and served with vanilla sauce / pudding and glühwein - heavenly!
Best apfelstrudel ever in the Café Braun in Mondsee.
Apfelstudel, vanilla sauce and glühwein. Very Austrian!
The Sound of Music is one of the most successful movies and musicals ever. This timeless classic won a very rare hat trick: Tony Awards (theatre), Grammy Awards (music), and Academy Awards / Oscars (movies). Maria von Trapp wrote a book about her family's story, and it was turned into several successful musicals and films in Europe before Rogers and Hammerstein's version debuted on Broadway. Maria and Georg had actually been married for 10 years and had two of their three children before the Anschluss. They had lost their fortune during the Depression when their bank went belly-up, but earned it back by performing as the Von Trapp Family singers, touring around Europe singing Austrian folk songs. In the film, they are shown escaping over the mountains into Switzerland. In reality, on the other side of the mountain they were climbing is Berchtesgaden, Germany - where the Nazi high-command would vacation at the time, and the opposite direction they wanted to go. In addition, you need serious climbing equipment to get over that mountain, and at the time Maria was pregnant and they had 8 children with them. In reality, they went to the Salzburg train station and took the train to Italy, then on to London and eventually the US. They had a 1-year work visa to tour the US as singers, but as one of their children was born in the US the family got to stay, eventually settling in Vermont where some of the von Trapp children still live. The children's names and ages were also changed for the film - some of the daughters were actually older than Maria was - it's kind of funny looking at pictures of them performing because you can't tell which one she is. The daughter named Louisa in the film was actually named Maria, but it would be too confusing to have two Marias in the movie.
The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer (a Canadian!), based on the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, was released in 1965 and at one point was the highest-grossing movies of all time. Adjusted for inflation, it is currently the third highest grossing film of all time, after Gone With the Wind and Star Wars (IV). It was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning 4 including Best Picture. You can bet it won best sound and musical score as well! Every year between Christmas and New Years, it's broadcasted in a 4-hour time slot on ABC and CTV (which I will usually watch with my family). The soundtrack was included among the records stockpiled in 20 underground radio stations by the BBC's Wartime Broadcasting Service, which was designed to provide morale-boosting broadcasts for 100 days following a nuclear attack. Although extremely popular around the world almost 50 years later, especially in North America, the film is largely ignored in Austria and Germany, due to the creative liberties taken with the family's history and resentment towards the way Nazism in Austria was depicted. It is often shown without the third act, ending at the wedding scene.
The rest of the day in Salzburg I spent wandering about the old town. I found it was smaller than the Old Town in Innsbruck but had many charming houses and lane ways. Even without the added charm of the Sound of Music, Salzburg and the surrounding area is a lovely place to visit.
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