If The Sound of Music is what you think of when you hear the name “Salzburg,” you’re in the wrong spot for today. There’s music involved, but not that kind. This is the cathedral whose opening ceremonies in 1628 involved twelve choirs singing from twelve balconies inside the church. And it’s the church where Mozart was baptized.
But it’s also the heavy-duty and imperial-style church that was for centuries the seat of powerful bishops who were also the rulers of a large territory, and who were princes of the Holy Roman Empire as well. Salzburg’s status as the seat of such an ecclesiastical power is likely the explanation for how many different churches, residences, palaces, monasteries and convents stick their towers up nearby.
While Rome wasn’t built in a day, the present cathedral, copied by an Italian architect from the Baroque architecture that was popular in Italy at the time, was built quite rapidly; it only took 14 years from cornerstone to dedication, replacing one that was destroyed in a fire in 1598.
The cathedral’s history goes back even further than the previous church. The first church on the site, opened in 774, was built on the remains of a Roman town, possibly on the site of a temple or early church. After a fire in 842, it was rebuilt and again after a fire in 1181. The fire in 1598 seems almost a tradition.
Unusually, the church’s entrance is within an enclosed square, reached by a series of arches near the main doors. The square is surrounded by the archbishop’s residence and other church buildings that are several stories high, giving the whole almost the appearance of a fortress.
I would have liked to have more chance to explore the interior, but it was the last day of the Salzburg Festival, and the doors were about to close for several hours.
Congratulations to ProfessorAbe and George G who identified the One-Clue Mystery site from an image of the hands on the door
