Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg

Old town of Salzburg, Austria, UNESCO World Heritage cite

Location of Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg in Austria

The Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg, also known as the Altstadt, is a district of Salzburg, Austria, recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. It corresponds with the historic city center, situated on the left and right banks of the Salzach river.^[1]^[2]

The listing of the World Heritage Site describes it thus: "Salzburg has managed to preserve an extraordinarily rich urban fabric, developed over the period from the Middle Ages to the 19th century when it was a city-state ruled by a prince-archbishop. Its Flamboyant Gothic art attracted many craftsmen and artists before the city became even better known through the work of the Italian architects Vincenzo Scamozzi and Santini Solari, to whom the centre of Salzburg owes much of its Baroque appearance. This meeting-point of northern and southern Europe perhaps sparked the genius of Salzburg’s most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose name has been associated with the city ever since."^[1]

The listed area comprises a core zone of 236 hectares (580 acres), including the old city on both banks of the Salzach river together with the Mönchsberg, Festungsberg and Kapuzinerberg hills that surround the old city to west and east. Beyond the core zone there is a buffer zone of 467 hectares (1,150 acres) which is intended to protect the core zone being affected by development visible in long distance views.^[2]

Sites and monuments

Sites and monuments in the core zone of the historic centre include:

Felsenreitschule, an open-air theatre built in the quarry used for the construction of Salzburg Cathedral
Franziskanerkirche, one of Salzburg's oldest buildings, dating from 1208 and used by the Franciscans since 1642
Getreidegasse, a busy narrow shopping street characterised by numerous high townhouses
Großes Festspielhaus, an opera house and concert hall dating from 1960 and built for the annual Salzburg Festival
Haus für Mozart, formerly the Kleines Festspielhaus, an opera house and concert hall dating from 1925
Hohensalzburg Fortress (Festung Hohensalzburg), overlooking the Old Town, one of the largest castles in Europe
Holy Trinity Church (Dreifaltigkeitskirche), dating from 1694
Hotel Goldener Hirsch, a five-star hotel located in a building on Getreidegasse dating back to at least 1407
Kollegienkirche, the Baroque style church of the University of Salzburg
Mirabell Palace (Schloss Mirabell), a pleasure palace built in 1606 with wide gardens and a marble hall
Museum der Moderne Salzburg, a modern art museum with locations in the old city and on the Mönchsberg
Mozartplatz, a historic square with monument to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart's birthplace (Mozarts Geburtshaus), a house in Getreidegasse that is now a museum dedicated to Mozart
Nonnberg Abbey (Stift Nonnberg), a Benedictine monastery founded c.712/715
Residenz, the former residence of the Prince-Archbishops, housing the Residenzgalerie art gallery
Residenzplatz, a large square outside the Residenz with a large and ornate fountain
Salzburg Cathedral (Salzburger Dom)
Salzburger Landestheater, a theatre and venue for opera, theatre, and dance, with resident companies of actors, singers and dancers
Salzburger Marionettentheater, a marionette theatre established in 1912
Salzburg Museum, a museum of artistic and cultural history of the city and region of Salzburg housed in the Neue Residenz [de]
Sigmundstor, an eighteenth century tunnel connecting the Altstadt with the Riedenburg quarter through the Mönchsberg
Sphaera [de], a sculpture of a man on a golden sphere (Stephan Balkenhol, 2007)
St Peter's Abbey (Stift Sankt Peter), a Benedictine monastery founded 696 with a well-known cemetery
St Sebastian's Church [de] (Sebastianskirche), a church consecrated in 1511

References

^ ^a ^b "Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg". UNESCO. Archived from the original on 9 December 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2021. The listing description is available under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0.
^ ^a ^b Map “UNESCO World Heritage property, Historic Centre of the city of Salzburg 1996” (Map). 1:5000. UNESCO. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2021.